Meyer Lemon Love
by myboygeorge
Summary: When the murder of a celebrity chef with a seemingly perfect relationship in public reminds Esposito of all the ways Meredeth supports him in being a cop, he pulls out all the stops to remind her how much he loves her too
1. Rolling Out

The wind on the morning of January sixteenth wasn't terribly frigid but it was enough to make Jeanette Saint-Pierre hurry her step towards the pretty row house on East Thirty-Sixth Street. She sincerely hoped Elaine and Victor Hammond's trio of giant Schnauzhalf-ers were not interested in their usual marathon all the way up to Central Park and back, even though she'd worn her good winter athletic boots - it was just too damn wintery out today.

She smoothed her aubergine tam over her coffee-coloured hair as she jogged up the stairs to the door, but before she pressed the bell Jeanette heard the dogs Alvin Simon and Theodore already barking inside. Concerned, as it was completely out of character for them, Jeannette used her vacation key Missus Hammand had given her to let herself in.

'Madame 'ammond? Is Jeannette,' she called out in her musical Haitian accent. 'If you're home, I'm jus' comin' in to sheck on de dogs.'

She eased open the door and was immediately hit by a metallic, salty scent Jeannette knew far too well - her father had been the town butcher just outside of Port-au-Prince and forever had that metallic, salty scent on his work clothes. Breathing through her mouth, she kept her gloves on as she carefully stepped around Mister Hammond's briefcase and car-keys left on the floor. Odd, but not out of the ordinary. Victor Hammond was a very clumsy person; his wife was forever complaining about their dry-cleaning bills being so high thanks to him forever spilling soup or sauce or coffee on his expensive clothes.

'Madame 'ammond?' Jeannette called again as she reached the townhouse's kitchen and she stopped short: the pristine white and emerald space was painted in blood, like some mad child wielding a disgusting red paintbrush. Face down in a pool of his own blood, his overcoat seeping red, was Victor Hammond. 'Oh! _Mon Dieu!_ _Monsieur! Monsieur!'_

Panicked as she was, Jeannette fumbled into her pocket for her cellular phone and dialed nine-one-one. '_Oui_ police assistance please, to t'ree-zero-zero-seven. 'e's been killed.'

* * *

><p>Esposito heard his phone go off before his alarm clock and groaned. He wanted another half-hour cozy in bed with his sexy Danish wife, and if he was going to get up early, it was to make love to her so they could both start their day with a smile just like they'd gone to bed with a smile too.<p>

Alas it was not to be as he answered the call. 'Esposito.'

'It's Kate. We caught one over on East-Thirty-Sixth Street. And bring snacks to feed the circus animals.'

'Understood.'

He hung up, kissed Meredeth's smooth shoulder. 'Baby, I gotta go.'

'Okay.'

Meredeth sat up, gave him a kiss. 'Okay. You need food?'

'You don't have to cook this early.'

'No, but it's going to be that kind of day, I can tell and if I don't get up with you now, I won't find another hour and a half to write once the kids are up.'

Esposito nodded, keeping his mouth shut as he kissed her and then headed for the shower. He knew when Meredeth woke up cranky like that, nothing good ever came of trying to charm her out of it. It was one the the many reasons he loved his wife, that he knew when to ease off and when to push without the usual roadsigns most men required.

When he'd showered, shaved and dressed for the day he headed for the kitchen to smell coffee already made and saw Meredeth at the kitchen table with her laptop, fingers flying over the keys in a flamenco-paced rhythm Esposito knew wasn't evenfast enough to keep up with her busy creative brain.

'So I was thinking, why don't you and I have a date night tonight,' he told her, pouring coffee into his travel thermos his twins had given him for his birthday the previous April. Esposito left the mug on the counter and came over, wrapped his arms around her. 'My sister owes me a favour for the girls and Cam's been dying to get Max and Leo over for a boys' night.'

'Already taken care of. They're having dinner here, and then Lili is taking the girls to see _Princess and the Paperboy_ at the Disney theatre for seven thirty, while the boys go to Cam and Lili's to play with Duncan's new chemistry set,' Meredeth replied without looking up, yet she was smiling broadly as she said it. 'And I'm going to make reservations for you and I tonight at the DeHeere Grill for seven-fifteen, but no dessert there.'

'No dessert at the DeHeere Grill?' Esposito looked appalled; DeHeere Grill was known for their desserts, especially the mango-raspberry tartuffo with cinnamon-sugar lady-fingers. 'That's a felony, Mere.'

'I think the judge will give me an excuse.' Now Meredeth looked up at him, tugged him in by his tie for a juicy steaming kiss. 'When dessert is you and me with silk sheets, chocolate dipped strawberries and a yummy Monbazillac to wash it down.'

'You wearing what?' Esposito asked, as if he had to.

'My tattoos and a smile.'

'I like the new one,' he reminded her, poking her on the upper portion of her left butt cheek, where beneath her robe and pyjamas he knew there to be a quintet of hearts, two outlined in white, two in pink and one in red. They represented the birthstone of her husband and four children; when Esposito had asked her why she wanted her third tattoo yet again on her butt, she grinned as he'd held her hand in the chair and told him that while her family was a pain the ass from time to time, she loved them wholeheartedly. 'Though I sometimes wish you'd stop marking up a masterpiece, it's like painting a happy face on the moon in Van Gogh's _Starry, Starry Night_.'

'I'm not as liberal with it as Shane is.'

'Did you finally talk Lanie out of it?'

Meredeth laughed; Lanie had gotten a little touch of a mid-life crisis when she'd turned forty-one the previous March and had told Meredeth how much she admired her tattoo, and wanted one of her one. The longing to change her look had only increased when Honey-Milk, Beckett and Andrea's came back from a post-New Years diving trip to the Bahamas with shiny new belly-rings. Two days Lanie had announced her decision to get a piercing or some ink for herself, which in turn caused one of the biggest fights she and Dave had ever had. Thankfully, they'd reached detente and Lanie had decided upon a henna tattoo that would wash off in a couple of weeks time.

'Yes, Lanie decided she likes the henna tattoos better because she can move them around and surprise Dave in bed when she gets a new one. Now shush, I am working.'

'But first.' Esposito tilted up her chin to kiss her once more. 'Gimme one for good luck, gorgeous.'

Meredeth smiled when she kissed him. 'Always, handsome.'

'Why don't I give you a shout later, you and Max Power can stop by the precinct for lunch or a coffee and cocoa or something.'

'We'll see. It's Monday which means we only have a week before Tortuga arrives, not to mention getting laundry done for the week, the grocery shopping, exercising for myself, completing my article for _Critical Condition_, and because it's poker night on Thursday for you this week, I need to make the calzones the boys requested and get them in the freezer too. Oh and look after Max and make dinner tonight too.'

'You'll get it done, Mere, it's why you're awesome and I love you so much.' Esposito gave her one last peck as he heard Kate's Crown Vic pull up and give the horn a single honk. 'See you tonight.'

He headed out the door, and for a moment Meredeth sighed. 'I wish I could believe that this morning.'


	2. Starting the Investigation

'Usually when I ride with Ryan, I pick him up.'

'He's in Dublin until Friday with Jenny and the kids, and I'm the ranking officer.'

Esposito nodded as Beckett made her way east on Twenty-Seventh Street towards Fourth Avenue. 'What's the story?'

'Not sure on the what but we know the who and the where. It's Victor Hammond, killed in his home.'

'The head judge on _Kitchen Gladiators_? That sucks.' Esposito blew out a breath. 'Mere really likes his show.'

'She ever get to meet him?'

'No. He was supposed to be one the other judges when she did the Iron Chef America judging but he came down with mono so he was replaced with Ted Allen, which made Mere even happier at the time.'

Now it was Beckett who made the pout face. 'I'm sorry for that. Will she be invited to his funeral?'

'Unlikely. She wrote her cookbook and it was a bestseller but she likes to keep it for the family. Victor Hammond was French trained and had been the executive chef at Chalet Rustique for twenty-six years before he started on _Kitchen Gladiators_.'

'You're pretty knowledgeable about him,' Beckett commented, and Esposito shrugged.

'I've been married to Meredeth for nearly eight years, her culinary enthusiasm has started rub off, amongst other things.'

'It's too early for sex jokes, Detective. Besides we're almost here.'

Esposito saw the crowd of journalist being held back by uniforms. 'Vultures. Any of them from TMZ?'

'Probably.'

'Fuckers. Still haven't forgiven them for what they did to my Meredeth.'

'Isn't she going out to California soon for the SAG awards?'

'February fifteenth. I'm going with her.'

'Remind me again why that film was delayed so long in coming out? She made it when Max was a bumpy,' Beckett recalled as she parked down the block to avoid the crush of reporters. 'He'll be three in less than a month.'

'The film didn't finish principle photography until the following January, and then about two months after editing was done, two of the supporting actors were killed in a plane-crash so they decided to hold off on release make it a Toronto International Film Festival entry the following year, which was last fall, and then it was released just before Christmas here in the States.'

'You must be so proud of her.'

'Are you kidding? I love seeing her on the red carpet and even better, I get to go with her.'

'Time for the game face.'

In a millisecond, Esposito went from supportive hubby to stern cop as he and Beckett flashed their badges to Adam Brennan, still in his uniform and waiting for their arrival at the bottom of the stairs.

'Hey Adam, how's it hanging,' Esposito asked, reclipping his badge to his belt. 'Relishing these last few days as a lowly uni?'

'Mostly just trying to stop from smiling all the time.'

'Must be that fiancée of yours.'

Adam cleared his throat and looked at his notepad to avoid fantasizing about Lindsay still warm in their bed. 'Victim is Victor Hammond, aged fifty-eight, found by his dog-walker at approximately six-thirty this morning when she came to look after Alvin Simon and Theodore. That's their dogs, they've been sequestered until Animal Control gets here,' he reported.

Beckett nodded, pulled latex gloves from her pocket. 'Who's the ME?'

'Shane's got strep throat, so Lanie's here.'

'Again?' She clucked her tongue, shook her head as she looked left and right while Adam led them back to the body in the kitchen. 'Poor guy.'

'Your son-in-law or this guy,' Lanie asked in a friendly tone, crouching beside the remains of Victor Hammond as she made her notes. 'Though both are in pretty pitiful shape.'

'I feel sorrier for Alexis, having to look after her whining hubby,' Esposito commented, then blinked when both women stared at him. 'What?'

'This from the man who acts like he's dying when he has the stomach flu and has Meredeth bring him soup in bed,' Lanie shook her head.

'I take care of her too,' he said defensively, shaking his head. 'What about Mister Hammond, Lanie?'

'He was stabbed...' Lanie pointed to the wounds, counting. 'Seventeen times.'

'That is a lot of hate,' Beckett agreed. 'Any signs of defensive wounds?'

'I'm getting there,' Lanie protested, then pointed to Hammond's mouth, where there was pinks foam resting on his lips. 'See this? Indicates he ingested something and there's no signs he struggled or fell during the attack.'

'So someone knocked him out and then stabbed him over and over,' Esposito inferred and Lanie nodded again.

'Hang on.' She flipped open her ringing cellphone. 'Hello lover. Yes I've got a fresh one. Katie and Javi. Yes, I'll be home by noon. Love you too, my Italian Stallion. Bye.'

Beckett arched an eyebrow. Did everyone have sex on their brains this morning? Was it a full moon or what? 'You know, I'm not sure I wanna know what you and Dave have planned.'

'His sister is coming into town for a conference and I promised him we'd meet her at the train at two.'

'Oh.'

'Yes, see? Not everyone has a gutter-mind.' Lanie didn't bother adding that Dave had asked her if she'd be home in time for them to fit in a quickie before meeting Gia at Penn Station. 'Back to our customer, my liver thermometer tells me he bit the big one sometime between eleven pm and one am last night-slash-morning, but given that he was dosed, don't quote me on that until I give you a prelim.'

'Fair enough.' Esposito made notes, then looked at Beckett. 'You want the dog walker or the reporters?'

'Reporters. I'm better at handling them than you.'

Esposito shrugged, then looked over at Adam. 'Show me where Miss Saint-Pierre is hanging out.'

Adam nodded, showed Esposito to a closed room. Inside, Jeannette was sitting with a fresh-faced female uniform, stroking the head of the giant Schnauzer with the blue collar.

'Sir,' the uniform addressed Esposito. 'I let Jeannette stay with the dogs, it kept them soothed with everyone going and coming.'

'That's fine. I'll take it from here. Go find Detective Beckett outside.'

When the uniform was gone, Esposito sat in the chair she'd vacated and sized up the dog-walker. Early thirties, probably multiracial from the tone and texture of her complexion, definitely rattled but still solid.

'Miss Saint-Pierre, my name is Detective Esposito, I need to ask you some questions about what happened when you arrived at work this morning.'

'Of course, sir,' she replied in a low voice, staring at a spot on the floor as she tried to concentrate. 'I got 'ere at about six-'ours-twenty, and was goin' to knock but I 'ear de dogs. Dis is not right, not...um, _quel mot_,' she muttered to herself, 'um, everyday?'

'It was unusual,' Esposito prompted her, and Jeannette nodded.

'Yes, un-usual. I use my key for vacation to come in de 'ouse. I see Monsieur 'ammond's valise for work and keys on de floor, and in de kishen..._mon Dieu, c'est terrible_,' she breathed. 'I dial de telephone for de police officer right away.'

Esposito nodded, making notes. Her English was stilted but clear enough he got what she was saying without needing a translator; he immediately thought of getting Alexis police consultant clearance just in case.

'_Monsieur_ Detective,' Jeannette asked him, lifting her eyes from the floor to look at him. 'Tell me, _s'il vous plait_, 'as anyone told 'is wife?'


	3. Looking Around

Beckett had moved the reporters along with a surprising amount of swiftness and had returned inside to begin examining the rest of the crime scene. She took Adam and another uniform upstairs to inspect for any signs of forced entry or disturbance from a possible intruder. The bathroom was clean, as was the study and two guest rooms, and as the only way to get into the master bedroom was through the minuscule window in the ensuite bathroom, it was highly unlikely the murderer came in that way.

Of course, it was entirely possible the person knew the code to the security alarm and used a bump-key or a copied key to shatter the bolt on the front door. 'Tracy?' she asked the female uniform. 'Can you go downstairs to Detective Esposito and ask him about the front door, if the dog walker used her keys or if it was already ajar.'

'Right away, Detective.'

Tracy disappeared down the stairs ahead of Adam and Beckett; the latter scratched her head as she sighed heavily. 'We need to get in touch with the wife and let her know before she finds out on TMZ or something stupid like that.'

'TMZ?'

'I take it you don't want Food Network a lot, do you?'

'Not really, no.'

'The victim's name is Victor Hammond, he was a chef and cookbook author, and he was a judge on that show _Kitchen Gladiators_.' Beckett stopped, looked at him. 'Didn't you wonder why those reporters were outside?'

'I thought he was some kind of Wall Street big-wig, like the one we had just before New Year's Eve. He lived in this area, it's popular for bankers and venture capitalists who don't like being too far from the office.'

'Fair enough.'

'I think I've heard of _Kitchen Gladiators_,' Adam went on, looking around the spacious foyer of the townhouse. 'Is that the one with the secret ingredient and they only have an hour to make five dishes with it?'

'No, that's _Iron Chef America_. _Kitchen Gladiators _have to do a three course meal in an hour based on a theme for special guests and the judges and guests grade their food together. I watched one with Meredeth, the theme was _Fusion Families_, where the Korean hubby and Parisian wife were celebrating their anniversary and wanted their dinner to reflect their blended cultures.'

'Oh. Sounds interesting.'

Beckett nodded, then looked at Esposito, who was sending the dog-walker on her way out the door with the Animal Control personnel. 'What did you get from Jeannette?'

'She's rattled but lucid. She definitely had to use her key, but she didn't touch the alarm because she was more concerned about finding out why the dogs were going nuts.'

'Good. Make sure you get her to give us disqualifying prints if she is a regular visitor to the house.'

'She'll be in to see Andrews in the lab by one today.'

'Great. What about the wife?'

Esposito shrugged. 'What about her? Jeannette said she should be here, she didn't know about any trip she'd booked or anything like that. She hasn't come in the house yet.'

'That's not right,' Adam started.

'Not everyone's seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses like you and I and Beckett because we got lucky and picked the best partners in the world to marry. Maybe they're on the way to Divorce-o-land.'

'Maybe, but even if you were on the outs with your wife-'

'Bite your tongue in half, Adam,' Esposito retorted, sincerely insulted at the very notion he'd ever hurt Meredeth and his babies like that.

'Okay, if Mister Hammond and his wife are on their way to a split, wouldn't the wife be here making sure that all the legal work is taken care of properly so she gets her fair share?'

'You're right Adam, absolutely.' Beckett nodded. 'Something isn't right about this.'

She pulled out her cellphone, dialed Riley Fontina in the AV department at the forensics lab. He answered with a delighted, 'Cheese Whiz, what's your beef?'

'Riley, it's Beckett.'

'Hey, Beckett, how was that Bahamas? Heard you got a little body piercing done?'

'No comment. Can you run a name for me, do a check on any cellphone or credit card activity for me within the last twelve hours?'

'Credit card is a no-fly-zone unless i have a warrant but I can look at the phone for you if you don't need records.'

'No, just activity.'

'Sure send me the name.'

'Elaine Hammond.'

There was a clickity-clack of keystrokes, followed by his voice once more. 'Elaine Bethany Hammond, nee Morrison, resides three-zero-zero-seven East Thirty-Sixth Street?'

'Yeah, that's her.'

'Give me a moment.' There was more click-clack of computer keys and Riley made a clucking noise with his tongue. 'The last activity I am seeing here is a call last evening around ten thirty pm to a cab company. Nothing after that.'

'Thanks Riley.'

She hung up, sighed. If Elaine Hammond wasn't home, and she hadn't made any phone calls, where the hell had that cab taken her? Fuqua, she decided. Judge Michelle Fuqua was goign to be her best bet. Fuqua had pulled through like a champion for her during the investigation into John Raglan's death two years before, becoming Beckett's go-to judge if things seemed a little whacky. She would be more than happen to provide her with a warrant for the missing wife of a dead celebrity chef.

After making the note, Beckett looked around and saw Lanie's assistants were transporting the body out of the kitchen in the forever-ominous black bag of the coroner's office. 'I know you have your tests to do and all, Lanie, but I need a time of death as soon as you can get it done. It's priority for this case.'

'Sure thing, I'll do my best.'

'It could tell us about the wife, if she brought a cab back here last night or if she went somewhere else.'

'Kate.' Lanie put a hand to her shoulder. 'I'll do everything I can on my end to help you, okay?'

'Thanks, girl.'

The medical examiner giggle. 'You're like Ryan, the more street you try to sound, the whiter you become.'

With that, Lanie buttoned her coat and followed the body out to the OCME van; even through the partially opened door they could hear the jumble of questions from reporters, the snapping shutters of journalistic cameras. Beckett had to grin when she heard one of them - gender unknown - give a little yelp and Lanie's sweet but curt reminder that she asked the reporters to move back.

'We need an APB on Elaine Hammond, now. This won't stay quiet for long, not with those bloodsuckers out there,' Esposito told Beckett. 'You want Adam on it?'

'Yeah, have Adam call it in, we're going next door both ways to see if anyone heard anything suspicious. Hopefully they're not the traditional see-no-evil neighbours Manhattan is famous for.'

'Hold that thought,' Esposito told her as he picked up his ringing cellphone. 'Esposito.'

'Hi Daddy!'

'Hey, sweetheart.' His spirit brightened when he heard Tessi's voice; it was instantly replaced with wariness. 'Why are you still at home?'

'Mami says I have a little fever but I feel fine, can you tell her I don't have to stay home today?'

'What's the thermometer say?'

'One-zero-one-point-nine, but I feel fine,' Tessi protested again, 'just very cold.'

'That's the fever, sweetheart. Lots of juice and tea and rest today, and listen to your mami, she knows best, okay?'

'Okay Daddy, love you.'

'Love you too, princess.',


	4. Scouting a Lead

With the all-points bulletin out for Elaine Hammond, Esposito knew the next step was to try and get a warrant for her financial records along with the standard runs for Victor Hammond himself, but there was a nagging part of him that wanted

'Chickens and eggs,' he groused to Beckett as they rode up the elevator to the Homicide bullpen. 'It really sucks outloud we can't do more at the scene.'

'It's sealed and undisturbed, so we're going to look into Victor Hammond's life, and go over everything with a fine-tooth comb.'

The elevator doors dinged open and they headed for the whiteboard by Beckett's desk where Adam was already writing up notes as the first officer on-scene and adding in his own thoughts. Esposito walked up quietly behind him, saw he'd written down questions about Elaine's mysterious non-appearance - _why no return home? Why no cellphone activity after ten-thirty? If abducted why go radio-silent, why no attempt at ransom?_

'There wouldn't be any attempt at ransom because they had no family,' Esposito filled in, making Adam jump a little in his boots. He grinned, clapped him on the shoulder. 'A little edgy?'

'Nah, Lindsay called and said her parents are coming into town tomorrow night.'

'That's a little short notice,' Beckett commented, and Adam rolled his eyes.

'Her family isn't exactly what you'd call the compassionate type.'

'Oh?'

'Put it this way. After Lindsay was attacked by her classmate, her parents told her she could never be truly married in God's eyes because she was unclean.'

'Oh boy.' Esposito winced. 'Wonder what they'd think of Meredeth and me the first time we did the deed.'

'Perhaps we can save the locker-room chat for coffee time,' Beckett suggested, though inside she was appalled at how Lindsay's family could be so cruel after she'd been traumatized. 'Did you learn anything else from the dog-walker?'

'Only that she is a legal immigrant from Haiti, she's been here about two years and is studying part-time to be a veterinary assistant at SUNY while she works as a dog walker and animal sitter.'

'How long has she worked for the Hammonds? How did she get the job?'

'She's worked for them for about eight months, and she was referred to them by a neighbour across the street, the Glassmans. I ran her already, she's got no criminal record and has a small business owner's license for her dog-walking services, and she got a parking ticket outside City Hall last year when she went to apply for said license,' Adam recited from the small file he'd begun to put together. He looked up at the board, shook his head. 'She charged them a hundred dollars a day and she showed me the GPS she used to keep track of where she took them and I have to say she's worth it.'

'A hundred dollars a day?' Esposito asked incredulously.

'Yep, thirty dollars a dog plus ten for her other expenses like puppy treats and scoop-bags.' Adam showed him the GPS printout. 'She'd start at East Thirty-Sixth and walk them all the way up to East Eighty-Fourth through Central Park and home again. Every day.'

'She's in good physical shape, then,' Beckett decided, 'could be she was strong enough to incapacitate Mister Hammond.'

'POssible but unlikely,' Esposito decided. 'Remember Lanie said it was something he'd ingested.'

'Right.' Beckett flipped out her cellphone, dialed Lanie's extension at the morgue. 'Lanie, you have Mister Victor Hammond on the slab yet?'

'Yeah, he's cleaned and scraped and ready to go. Why?'

'Did he have any signs that a rag was held to his mouth and he inhaled fumes to knock him out, or that he was clocked on the noggin or what?'

'One moment.' There was a shuffling noises, the sound of Lanie's mumbling to herself. 'Nope, no bumps or lacerations on the skull, and there were no burns around the mouth or nose, so I can tell you with ninety-five percent certainty that he drank or ate something with the poison in there and he was not conscious when he was stabbed.'

'Thanks, girl.'

'Anytime.'

'Lanie says it was definitely something he ate that knocked him out,' Beckett informed her team, making the note beneath the crime-scene photos on the whiteboard. 'Did Jeannette Saint-Pierre alibi out?'

'Yeah.' Esposito looked at the notes he'd made from his talk with Jeannette. 'She arrived yesterday morning at the Hammonds at six-thirty, like she always does, picked up the dogs and walked their usual route, she dropped them off at eight am, then did the same for the rest of her clients until three pm, took the subway home to

'Why are you fixating on Jeannette, Detective?' Adam asked.

'Because she's the only person we've been able to talk to about any kind of movements on Victor Hammond. Get Riley on the phone, tell him we want a record of Jeannette Saint-Pierre's cellphone activity starting with yesterday morning at five am.'

'On it,' Esposito replied, and headed for his desk; when he'd made the call to Riley, he called home next to see how his family and his wife were doing. It was Meredeth herself who answered. 'Hey baby, how's our princess doing?'

'Better, she's sleeping it off right now and I am in the middle of laundry. Max, careful with those, you're gonna knock it into the-'

Esposito fought not to laugh when he heard the sound of something going splat and Max's very distinct little 'whoopsie' followed with Meredeth's exasperated chuckle. 'Want me to let you go, Mere?'

'That might be a good idea, we no have oatmeal-crusted boxers shorts.'

'Okay. I love you, Meredeth Dakkars.'

'Love you too, Javier Jimeno.'

He hung up, tapped his finger on the receiver. He couldn't imagine what it would be like for Meredeth to get news like they were going to deliver to Elaine Hammond; he knew she'd already gotten a call like that before when they'd only been dating for six months and he'd been shot by the Picasso killer. There was so much she did for him to support him on his job, he couldn't imagine facing everything he had in the last ten years without her right there loving him.

He picked up his cellphone, set a reminder in the calendar function - _buy flowers for Mere tonight_ - so he wouldn't forget to bring her a little treat that woudl make her smile, and lift his spirits to see her smile.

Satisfied his alarm would ring at end of shift Esposito turned to his computer and began to draft up a request for a warrant on Victor and Elaine Hammond's land-line phones, cell transcripts, and financial records. Though he knew it was the right thing to do, he couldn't help the nasty feeling in the back of his brain that Elaine's disappearance and the murder were somehow connected.

When he was finished, he sent it to Judge Michelle Fuqua, then headed for the breakroom to get more coffee. He'd just programmed the espresso maker when Beckett popped her head in. 'Hey, we might have a lead on Elaine's whereabouts.'

'Yeah?'

'Mm-hmm. I just got off the phone with the Glassmans, the neighbours who recommended Jeannette's canine services and they said that they saw Bobby Minnelli's car parked there yesterday evening from about six until ten.'

'Bobby Minnelli as in one of the other judges of _Kitchen Gladiators_?' At Beckett's nod, Esposito abandoned his espresso and headed for his desk. 'I know that name and not because of the cooking show. He was arrested for drug possession and assault two years back. Gil's boy Jiang Li took the collar, it was his first high-profile case.'

Beckett studied the mug-shot on Esposito's screen. 'Drugs and a temper, sounds like he's worth a look.'


	5. Questioning the Creep

The trip to East Forty-Eighth was short thanks to beating the early-morning traffic, which meant that when Beckett and Esposito flashed their badges to the high-rise doorman they were ushered right in and appeared to have woken Bobby Minnelli out of a deep sleep. He answered the door wearing Green-Lantern briefs and a trio of thin gold chains around his neck, one of which held a small round Holy Mother medallion.

'Roberto Minnelli?' Beckett asked, palming her badge.

'Yeah, the fuck you want dollface?' he asked gruffly. 'It ain't my birthday.'

'Guarenteed it's not. My name is Detective Kate Beckett, this is Detective Esposito, we're investigating the murder of Victor Hammond.'

'What? That's bullshit, Victor's not dead, I just had dinner with him last night.'

'I can assure you it's very real and not bullshit,' Esposito informed him, pointed over Bobby's shoulder. 'May we come in? Unless you'd like to talk out here in your Green Lantern banana hammock.'

Bobby looked down at himself as if he was suddenly aware of his lack of clothing. 'Right, yeah, I'll find some pants. Hang on.'

He left them standing in the door, headed back to what Esposito presumed was the bedroom, and returned momentarily wearing a loose grey cashmere sweater and black sweatpants. 'You said you're investigating Vic's death?'

'Yes, he was poisoned and then stabbed in his kitchen sometime yesterday evening,' Beckett replied, looking around. 'You mentioned that you had dinner with him last night?'

'Vic's dead,' Bobby repeated, staring at her.

'Yes, Mister Minnelli, I'm afraid so.'

'Damn. That's just...damn, damn goddamn!' Bobby raked his hands through his hair, and Beckett imagined when he wasn't swamped with fatigue and shock, he was quite charmingly handsome. He whirled in a couple of tight circles, as if unsure which way he was supposed to go. 'I just saw him last night, I told him I was gonna kick his ass in filming tomorrow! Who would have done this?'

'That's what we're trying to find out.' Beckett took out her spiral-top notepad and a pen. 'You mentioned you had dinner at his house last night? What time did you arrive?'

'About six, I guess. I drove, so maybe a neighbour saw me?' Bobby jerked his thumb towards the kitchen. 'Mind if I make coffee? I'm half-awake and this is a lot to take in.'

'Of course.'

As the man was currently their only solid lead for any new information, the detectives gave him a little latitude and waited patiently, silently while he turned on his espresso machine. The smell of it made Esposito want to whimper, thinking of the coffee he'd left behind when Beckett told him about the new lead. He opened his mouth to ask for one himself when he saw Bobby pull three cups from his cabinet and dump three shots of espresso in; Bobby began to talk once more as he fill the silver pitcher to steam milk.

'Doing something with my hands helps me clear the brain,' he said quietly, then looked once more at Beckett. 'Are you sure it's him? It's not a mistake?'

'No, I'm sorry Bobby. His dog walker Jeannette found him just a few hours ago.'

'Ah, yes, Jeannie. Now there's some bouillabaisse I'd love to dip my ladle in.'

Esposito thought he disguised his disgust rather well when he replied calmly, 'You said you had dinner last night, you arrived at six, what kind of mood was Mister Hammond in?'

'Friendly, happy to see me, full of piss and vinegar. His usual self. A lot of people think because of the show we're frenemies, but the truth is had he not been in my life after my slip-up with the drug charges, I wouldn't be here now.' Bobby poured milk, held up a bottle of hazeulnut syrup. 'You want it straight or sweet?'

'Sweet,' the detectives chorused, Beckett adding, 'What time did you leave?'

Bobby heaved a sigh, clearly a man not used to accounting for his whereabouts - the hallmark of a bachelor. 'Let me think. We had dinner at his place, then we watched the Islanders-Penguins game and I left just after SportsDesk came on ESPN, so about ten-ish. I drove straight home and if you need the parking garage tapes or the surveillance tapes from the door, I'll make sure the doorman and the manager co-operate with you.'

'Of course.'

'I would never hurt my friend,' Bobby continued passionately, almost pleadingly. 'You have to believe me. Victor Hammond's the best friend I've had in the food industry and whatever helps you get the fucker that did this, I'll do it.'

'What can you tell us about Elaine Hammond?' Esposito inquired.

'Elaine's a doll, a true sweetheart. She ran that house like it was a military barracks, which Victor needed. He was brilliant as a chef but if he didn't have any structure outside a kitchen, he wouldn't know which way to go.'

'Was she at dinner last night?'

'No.' Bobby shook his head. 'Whenever I came over, Elaine cleared off to the theatre or a yoga class or something like that. Said she heard enough about the show when Victor was working at home, she didn't need another dog barking about it.'

'You happen to know where she cleared off to last night?'

'The theatre. Elaine loves musicals, plays, lectures, comedy shows, anything as long as the performers are live. She left about twenty minutes after I got there and she had plans to meet her girlfriends for a late supper afterward.'

Esposito nodded, making notes. 'What time was Elaine expected home?'

'No idea, Victor wasn't expecting her home until about eleven or midnight.' Bobby's brow knitted together above his worried green eyes. 'Is Elaine- is she okay?'

Beckett and Esposito traded a quick look and decided the truth was the only way to go. 'Mister Minnelli,' Beckett told him quietly, 'Elaine is missing. She never came home last night. We're still looking for her.'

'You need to find her, you need to make sure she's okay, because if she's not and then she finds out something happen to Victor...' Bobby blanched like an almond. 'They were so in love, even after thirty-eight years together.'

'Thirty eight years?'

'They were high-school sweethearts, married during a summer break when Victor was at culinary school. They still acted like teenagers some days the way they would text back and forth. More than once I had to tell him to turn on his cell when we were filming because he wanted to tell Elaine what was going on.'

Becket blew out a breath, thinking of Castle and how they should be so lucky to reach thirty-eight years together. 'That's impressive, Bobby. Is there any place you can think of where Elaine would go, where she would be if not at home?'

'Not a clue. Look you just need to find her, okay?'

'Did Elaine have any problems with drugs or drinking or gambling, anything like that?' Beckett pressed him, hoping she could get something out of him before he crumbled.

'Nuh-uh. She was a straight arrow, and like I said, she ran the house. Aside from going to the theatre, I don't know when she'd have the time to go out and blow cash or cocaine.' Bobby looked around, saw the picture of them on his fridge. 'What about the other people on the show? Have you talked to them yet?'

'No, but the investigation is young.'

'I'll get you their numbers.'

Esposito waited until Bobby had disappeared before leaning over to Beckett. 'You catch that?'

'That he didn't get anxious until we talked about Elaine being a no-show? Yeah, I got that loud and clear. He definitely warrants a stronger look for that alone.'


	6. Getting the Papertrail Started

After leaving with the tapes in hand to verify Bobby Minnelli's time of return to his apartment, Beckett drove them to the chambers of Judge Michelle Fuqua where they were lucky enough to find the good judge just arriving before the start of her day.

'Thanks for taking the time today, Your Honour.'

'Anything I can do for Nikki Heat and her intrepid Ochoa, I'm happy to help.'

Michelle smiled broadly from her moon-round cocoa coloured face, a tiny little firecracker of a woman - she didn't even clear five-feet in her stockings. She slipped from her clunky winter boots into her three-inch heels which put her at five-foot-two and turned to face them as she put her black robes on over her mint-green suit.

'What can I do for you today?'

'We caught a case this morning. Victor Hammond, the tv chef, and-'

'Oh, dear, no.' Michelle's eyes went soft with sadness. 'I liked his show very much.'

'Well, his murder is out of the ordinary, as his wife is missing and we are stuck,' Beckett admitted, 'trying to figure out what has happened to her has us in a bit of a cul-de-sac because we don't want to touch the crime scene in case we need to look for things from her situation too.'

'That is a pickle. The best advice I can offer you is this - if the crime scene will keep, worry about the technical side of things. The phone records, the bank records.' Michelle turned to her spiffy MacBookPro and fired it up to print the papers they would need for getting such wheels in motion. 'I'll issue you one for Elaine's records as well.'

'How do you know her name, Your Honour?' Esposito inquired.

'Hard not to know about their marriage, how solid a couple they were. A rarity in this day and age, and especially with him being the idiot-box. Television just brings out all kinds of crazies.'

'Tell me about it,' he laughed. 'There was this one jerk-off, Bailey Oren, who tried to blackmail me and Mere by saying he'd slept with her after we were married and he had the photos to prove it right around the time the third _Lady Hawk _miniseries was about to begin its publicity campaign.'

'How did you handle that one?' Michelle asked, curiousity peppering her voice as she printed off the official paperwork for the detectives.

'Well, since the guy was using doctored photographs and the time he was alleging they had their affair was when we were actually in Iceland for Valentine's Day, he didn't really have much of a leg to stand on so it went away pretty quickly.'

'You're a good man, Javier,' Beckett told him. She knew his position on infidelity and wouldn't be laughing about it like this so casually if there had been a single microbe of truth to Oren's allegations. 'You planning something special with Mere for Valentine's Day?'

'Oh yeah.' Esposito nodded, winked mischievously. 'First I'm taking her to this tempura place Andrea recommended to me, then we have tickets to see _Phantom of the Opera_, and we'll cap the night by not sleeping in a bed at the Waldorf Astoria, courtesy of Missus Lucita Lourdes George-Esposito.'

'Very nice,' Beckett agreed, wishing her husband would stick to New York City like that when he planned Valentine's Day. The man loved to spoil her with trips.

'Alright, here we are, one batch of warrants hot off the press.' Michelle signed the papers and handed them over to the detectives; it was an unusual way to go but Michelle had stood by her people when they'd needed someone to do it by the book. Considering the weird circumstances of their case, she was more than willing to go outside the box on this one. 'Anything else you need, just holler. You know where to find me.'

Beckett grinned the entire way out of the courthouse at the warrants in her hand. 'Would it be creepy of me to kiss this paper?'

'A little,' Esposito replied honestly. 'Though I've seen Ryan do worse.'

'Actually I think it's Ryan who's seen _you_ do worse,' she teased him, pleased with the handsome cop pinked up in his plump Puerto-Rican cheeks. 'Check in with Ryan, get him to give us the address of the Hammonds' bank.'

* * *

><p>They arrived at Citi First Capital on Fourth Avenue twenty minutes after receiving the location from Ryan, and Beckett knew from the moment she asked for the manager that this was going to be fun. She watched the prissy uptight looking man who would probably be mistaken for an effete salon owner stroll towards them with the impatience of a man with Things To Do.<p>

'Madam,' he all but simpered to her, 'I can assure you that any concerns over yyour accounts can be handled by one of the associates.'

'That's just swell except two small things. One it's Detective,' Beckett replied, showing off her badge; she knew without a doubt it was joyfully sick to watch him go pasty as woman with morning sickness, 'and two we're not here about our personal accounts. Espo?'

'We are here to speak with any and all of your staff regarding the murder of Victor Hammond, the disappearance of his wife Elaine and to set up a trace on Elaine Hammond's credit card as well as her personal accounts.'

'Oh, oh my word, well, we'll need...ah, consent of course from the Hammonds,' the manager stammered, and Esposito had to fight the urge to knock his knuckles on the guy's forehead and say_ were you born an idiot or was it a practiced feature?_

'Sir, we're investigating the murder of Victor Hammond.'

'No,' he scoffed. 'No, that's impossible, Mister Hammond was just in here yesterday.'

'I'm afraid it's true,' Beckett replied grimly. 'Is there somewhere we can talk?'

'Of...of course.'

The manager ushered them back to an office off a hallway from the main service and reception area. Neither Beckett nor Esposito sat in the comfy-looking leather chairs as the manger took a seat behind the desk.

'I do apologize for the misunderstanding and my lack of manners. You understand that we have people who think they don't have to wait in line like everyone else. Now what is this about needing tracers on the Hammond accounts?'

'Yes. Elaine Hammond is currently missing, and we need to have her credit card and her debit accounts tracked to give us a lead on her whereabouts.'

'Of course. May I see the warrant?' When Beckett handed over the paper, the manager nodded. 'This shouldn't be any time at all. The Hammonds are very loyal customers here, and we like to return it in kind when they need us.'

'Excellent. This is my number at the precinct, the moment you get a pop on those accounts of Elaine Hammond, you must call immediately.' Esposito tapped the card he placed on the manager's desk emphatically. 'Now as far as Victor Hammond's accounts and credit card are concerned-'

'Consider it done,' the manager waved him off. 'It might take an hour but I'll have the records sent to you as quickly as possible.'

'Okay then.' Beckett blinked. Usually bank managers were surly and sour to deal with, considering their clients' privacy tantamount to a nuclear missile site. 'We'll be in touch as soon as possible.'

Esposito waited until they'd left the bank before turning to Beckett. 'Think he's on the level?'

'Yeah. He may be a bit of a fool people-wise, but when it comes to his business he's a straight shooter. He knows the kind of red-tape he'd face if he tried to tie us up. Beckett,' she added answering her cellphone and grinning. 'On it. C'mon. The Cheese Whiz found something on a traffic cam by the Hammonds' townhouse.'


	7. Chasing Down the Taxi

Riley Fontina, nicknamed The Cheese Whiz, pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up his ice-pick nose in impatience when he saw Beckett and Esposito walk into his AV lab.

'What have you got for us, Riley?' Beckett asked without preamble. Something - hell, _anything_ - would be great right now. Even if to eliminate it as a possibility.

'In a second, it's not like on TV,' Riley reminded them; he'd been praying they'd be prompt and he dutifully zoomed and enhanced the footage he'd found. 'This is taken from the traffic cam at the intersection west of the Hammond townhouse.'

'So we're looking at East Thirty-Sixth and Fourth,' Esposito said after a quick mental calculation.

'Right. There is Minnelli's car leaving and heading for his own digs,' Riley said as Minnelli's snazzy red Maserati zipped away to his Upper East Side condo.

Beckett nodded, noting the time stamp of eleven-oh-six checked out with the neighbours' and Bobby's statements. 'Okay.'

'Now, we zip ahead just a few minutes later and...voila.'

Riley froze the video feed, and Esposito moved closer to the oversized screen to take a closer look. It was a taxi, idling at the lights while a passenger got out and walked back in the direction from which she'd come. It was definitely a she, too, judging from the toned legs and high-heeled winter dress boots; it made Esposito think of Meredeth. His wife had great legs, even when she was a little self-conscious of her lush thighs.

'Okay, so we have a woman dropped off at the corner intersection,' Esposito said blandly. 'This is earth-shattering because why?'

'I ran a check on the cab's phone-number and cross referenced it.' Riley wheeled from his AV board to his printer, passed them a sheet. 'It's the same number Elaine Hammond last called on her cellphone yesterday evening-'

'Which means there's a good chance that's Elaine Hammond coming home,' Beckett deduced. 'Riley, can you pull up that cab's registry number, find out who we're looking for when we hit the cab company?'

'Sure.'

While Riley worked his techno-magic, Beckett turned to Esposito. 'We'll hit up the studio next, since they'll have gotten word from Bobby, but if we're close you take the cab company. I'll take the studio people.'

'Why do I get the greasy fat guys and you get the TV stars?'

'Because I'm the superstar wife of a guy very popular in the media.'

'So am I.' Esposito paused, frowned. 'You know what I mean.'

'I do,' she laughed, then turned to Riley who had their information set and ready to go. 'Thanks Cheese Whiz.'

'Anytime.'

They left the CSU AV-lab for the garage, hopped into Beckett's ride; since they had a little time, Esposito called home again. He was thrilled when it was Meredeth who answered, sounding far less stressed than she had when he'd called before. 'Hey gorgeous, how's my Danish angel?'

'Better,' she replied and genuinely meant it. 'Max and I rewashed the clothes that ended up in his oatmeal on the kitchen table this morning, Tessi's upstairs sleeping off her fever and right now I am taking a breather. How are you guys doing? I saw you on City-Beat, that you caught Victor Hammond's murder this morning. That seriously sucks.'

'It does and more importantly, his wife is missing.'

'As in you can't find her?'

'No, she hasn't popped on the radar at all since we caught the case this morning. We're trying to figure out where she is while figuring out who killed Victor.'

'Did you check anything in her maiden name?'

'What?'

Meredeth gave herself a little smile. Forests and trees, she thought, and her cop was good at getting lost in them both. 'Sometimes, in power couples when there is only one true breadwinner no matter how famous the spouse is, the woman keeps a pocket account in her maiden name so if scandal ensues with divorce, she won't be left high and dry.'

'Mere, you're a genius. I love you so much, baby.'

'I love you too, babe.'

'Gotta run, more perps to shake down,' Esposito told her as Beckett found a parking spot at the Reliable Russian Taxi Stand owned by one Vasily Pyetrovich. He hopped out, already at the front door before she'd even locked the car. He desperately wanted to get this case underway so he could go home to his wife and hold her close. He'd heard the strain in her voice when Max had knocked over the laundry on his previous phone call and wondered if she could do with more than just flowers, maybe she could use some of his mother's famous almond _galletas_ from her bakery.

He put the thought on pause as he held up his badge for the thickset, balding man behind the scarred linoleum counter. 'Vasily Pyetrovich?'

'Is me,' he replied in a thick Russian accent that was as comforting to a true-blue New Yorker as a kosher deli. 'What is problem?'

'My name is Detective Esposito, NYPD Homicide.'

'Is trouble with car? Hit-and-run?'

'No, sir.' Esposito shook his head. 'This is concerning a fare picked up by one of your cars last night in the Theatre District.'

'Is good money late at night, peoples is walking ever'where,' Vasily protested, still concerned that one of his taxis was involved in an accident. 'I am having no problems with my drivers, they know better is honesty.'

Esposito eyed the framed photo on the wall of Vasily with a dark haired woman and five children who were clearly his three daughters and two sons, and knew exactly the angle to take with him. 'We are investigating the murder of Victor Hammond in his home and his wife, who is his next of kin and only family. He had no children so it's very important we find his wife.'

'Is good to have children, like angels even when devils. You are a father?'

'Yeah, I have four kids.'

'Good, good.' Vasily nodded, and Beckett could see he was in a far better mood to co-operate. 'If not hit-and-run, what is problem?'

'Your cab four-F-two-nine, it dropped off a fare at the corner of Fourth Avenue and East Thirty-Sixth Street last night, we believe this may have been Elaine Hammond. We need to see that particular cab's fare sheet last night, and if she paid with a credit card.'

'Will do best. Is on computer. New soft-app,' Vasily replied gruffly; he turned to an antique-looking computer system and despite having fingers the size of sausage links, they flew over the keys with a surprising amount of speed and delicacy. He tapped a few key-strokes and Beckett and Esposito heard the whir of a printer. 'Is coming soon.'

'Thanks Vasily.'

He nodded briskly; the printer had no sooner spat out the sheet than he was handing it over to the cops. 'Is all?'

'For now.' Beckett passed him one of her cards. 'If you remember anything unusual about any fares you might have gotten around ten-thirty yesterday evening, please call us.'

'Will do. _Dosvydana_.'

Esposito waited until they were on the sidewalk once more before arching an eyebrow at her. 'Why didn't you bust out those awesome Russian linguistic skills you rock?'

'Because I speak the dialect from Kiev, which is actually the Ukraine. He's from Minsk, old USSR territory. It's like someone from Mississippi trying to speak to someone from Wales.'

'Fair enough, I guess. Please tell me we're going to the television studio now.'

'Hold that thought. Beckett,' she said, answering her cellphone.

'Hey girl, it's Lanie. You're going to want to come and see me for your preliminary report.'


	8. Following Instincts

'No way.'

Beckett and Esposito said it in tandem as Lanie told them her findings of Victor Hammond's morning autopsy, the medical examiner giving them her own disbelieving-but-there-it-was face.

'No way, Lanie,' Beckett repeated, 'that's way too-'

'Surreal? Insane?'

'Yeah, like something from a Jason Bourne novel or something.'

Beckett stared in disbelief at Lanie, with the stitched-up Victor Hammond on the exam table between them, a sheet covering him from the sternum down. 'You're telling me that he was dosed with roofies, that's what he was given to knock him out so someone could stab him seventeen times in the back?'

'Yes I am.' Lanie handed over her preliminary report; her main man in the lab Micah had been on his game today and run a rush sample on the bloodwork for her. 'He was given eight-times the recommended dosage of Rophypnol, which is normally prescribed as a sleep-aid. From what I could determine in his stomach contents, he drank it down with a blend of ice-cream, orange-juice, mango and strawberries.'

'Probably one of his smoothies, he was notoriously well known for them,' Esposito supplied, remembering it was Victor Hammond who had inspired Meredeth to make the pregnant mamas in their groups protein and calcium shakes. 'Could be someone dosed it.'

'This killer is awfully careful, though, Espo,' Beckett reminded him. 'That's a big risk to take. What if he drinks it too soon? Or his wife came home early, or Bobby stayed later? How do you make sure he drinks it at the precise moment?'

'Which means he was probably handed the drink by the killer because with Rohypnol in that concentration, he'd be dead in under an hour and my COD is blood loss from stabbing, not poisoning by overdose,' Lanie told them. 'I will run more tests and make sure that I haven't missed anything, but right now, you are looking for someone with a lot of reason to want this man dead in a brutal, brutal way.'

'Thanks Lanie.'

Esposito and Beckett left Lanie's autopsy theatre, shaking their heads. 'Man, that is a nasty way to go,' Beckett commented. 'There's no way you could possibly think someone you trust is going to poison you then stab you to death.'

'Agreed. Where to next, fearless leader?'

'Now we get to go to the television studios, Espo.'

'Suddenly I'm not feeling in such a fanboy mood,' he confessed, giving a little shudder. 'Hearing the chef had his smoothie roofie'd makes me very hesitant at the free samples we'd probably get on a cooking show.'

* * *

><p>It was just barely six pm when Meredeth stood at the sink, scrubbing the pots and pans from making dinner as she listened to the sounds of her children in the living room. Her husband would be home soon, and it was just as well because she wasn't too thrilled with him right now. She knew this case would be time consuming given it was the kind that made the papers, but it still didn't stop her from having the feelings she did.<p>

Sighing, she picked up a towel and dried the dishes, tried to focus on the outline for the next chapter in her new book. As Kristof was working on the final details of their latest graphic novel's cover art, she was using the break between completion and publication to draft up her ideas for the young-adult series she wanted to write with him. She wanted it to be something her children could read before they turned eighteen since the Lady Hawk series wasn't exactly PG-rated.

She closed her eyes, heard her husband come in the door and the kids squeal in delight that he was home; they gave Esposito kisses and he remind the kids to play nice with Max while he was wearing his new glasses before he came into the kitchen. Meredeth heard the crinkle of cellophane-wrapped flowers on the kitchen table before he cozied himself up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist.

'Hello gorgeous,' he murmured, kissing her neck, then stopped when Meredeth didn't do the usual lithe wriggle that move always brought on. 'Mere? Babe, you okay?'

'No,' she replied before she could stop herself. 'And I'm not a babe.'

'Mere?' Sincerely baffled, Esposito turned her around in his arms. 'What's wrong?'

'It's nothing-'

'No, it's not. Tell me what's wrong.'

'I don't know, I just...I don't feel like your babe lately,' she confessed, gilt swamping every cell in her body as she turned to look at him with emotion storming in her heart. 'I feel like...I feel like you're Batman and I'm Alfred. I don't know how else to put it without hurting you.'

'Mere.' He pulled her away from the sink, tucking a loose strand of her honey-brown hair behind her ear. Esposito couldn't stand seeing that upset look in her eyes and more, he felt like a slug knowing he was the one who put it there. 'Baby, what's got you thinking that?'

'It just feels like lately the only way you think of me is the treat-maker or the laundry-magician or the kid-wrangler. It's not the case, Javi,' she added, 'there's been other cases, bigger cases than this but...oh, God, I don't know how to really say it without being 'that' wife and I'm not 'that' wife.'

'No you're not, so I know if you're telling me you're feeling like this, I'm not doing my job right as a husband.'

Esposito pulled her in for a tender kiss, held her close. He wished he didn't have to go to work in an hour and a half, but he would fix this. They'd had their bumps in their marriage before, times when he'd need to step up and be the bigger man, others when it was Meredeth who did so. They'd faced those together, but Esposito knew this time it would be a little different. This time he would be her superhero, her Batman.

'I love you Javi,' she told him with a soft smile and Esposito smiled at her.

'I love you right back, Mere. And you are going to clear your schedule this weekend.'

'What?'

'No, executive decision being made.' He stamped his foot lightly. 'I put my foot down,' he informed her regally and Meredeth giggled, a sound that made him want to weep in relief. 'I've got some favours saved up, so you are just going to have to deal with the fact I am going to surprise you with something tomorrow night.'

'Javi, you don't have to do a grand gesture, just-'

'Yes I do. I want to do the grand gesture, Mere. I haven't done that enough for you lately and that's my bad. Work, the kids, life gets in the way and you are my sexy Danish angel, and I want to remind you of that.'

Overcome with his passion, Meredeth could only nod, then close her eyes when he kissed her; she felt his tongue nudge her lips open and she arched against him, sighing a little.

'Mm, Mere,' Esposito groaned against her lips. 'You keep doing that, we might have to go upstairs and finish things off right away.'

'The kids are fine down here,' she replied.

'They also know exactly how babies get made far too soon. Especially our baby boy.'

Meredeth blinked her big blue eyes at him, and Esposito swore silently. He'd be a damn fool if he'd turn her down now, after she'd finished telling him how she felt unappreciated by him, and okay, yes, he had been taking her for granted lately. But he would put a stop to that, because there was no one in the world he loved like his juicy-booty goddess.

'Come on. A quickie right now before the kids head off to their previously planned activities, then the good stuff later when we're home alone.'


	9. Loving Each Other

With their children safely occupied downstairs, Esposito and Meredeth closed the bedroom door, Esposito's lips already finding the curve of Meredeth's neck. He pulled her close, tugging up her top and deftly flicking open the hooks of her bra so he could fill his hands with her breasts.

'We just did this last night,' he murmured to her, 'but I know my wife and I know what she needs right now.'

'God I love you, Javi,' Meredeth sighed, then groaned when his thumb teased her nipple into a taut pink peak. 'You always know.'

'I love you too Mere.'

Esposito kissed her deeply again, making noises of his own satisfaction when he felt her hands wander down to his belt, slide it through the loops of his pants which hit the floor seconds after the belt. 'You're taking the quickie comment seriously.'

'We have four very knowledgeably children downstairs, we're longer than ten minutes, they will know why we're up here.'

'True,' Esposito nodded, then grinned and scooped Meredeth up to carry her to their bed, plunked them down ceremoniously with him stretched on top of the luscious curves of his wife's body. 'Know what this reminds me of?'

'What?'

'The night of the Care-aoke before we were married when we got exceptionally drunk and had chipmunk-quick sex.'

'Mmm yes,' Meredeth giggled, 'we were pretty speedy that night.'

'Think we can top it?'

'Not top,' she decided, 'match it.'

'You got it.'

Esposito dipped his head, took her breast into his mouth; the suddenness of it had Meredeth gasping in delight as a ripple went through her body, sparking the need for him he always stirred. Ten years together, nearly eight married and four babies later hadn't changed that and it made her feel like a fool for ever thinking that this man - her man - who worshiped every last dimple and bump of her body could possibly take her for granted. The thought was gone as his hands wandered south to strip her out of her jeans and panties so she was naked for his feasting. With lightning quick moves he streaked his mouth down the centre of her body to her honeypot, his hand against the insides of her knees to keep her spread open for him.

'Jesus, Javi,' she cried out, trying to keep her voice down so as not to disturb the kids. She felt the love emanating from him in every stroke of his tongue over her damp flesh. She pressed her palm to the back of his head as her hips ground out the rhythm they knew would give her a white-hot orgasm, the kind that wiped the brain clean. As she clapped her other hand to her mouth to muffle her scream of pleasure, Esposito moved up her body and covered her lips with his.

'Meredeth Dakkars, I love you so much,' he told her, taking her hand so she could slip him inside her body; she made that little 'oh!' as he filled her up, began to move inside her. The gentle rhythm they created had the bed gently moving but not so much that their children would notice something going on upstairs. When Esposito felt his wife come for him, he closed his eyes as she moaned in his ear, 'I love you much Javier Jimeno,' and let himself fly with her.

Despite the desire to stay tangled together on the bed and just enjoy the afterglow of quick but satisfying sex, both knew they had to get up and redress before Tessi, the twins or especially Max came looking for them. It was a testament to the strength of their love that they could fit in a quickie like this and have it mean as much as if they'd taken a whole night of romance together. Which, Esposito thought, they would get to once the kids were off doing their activities.

'Mere,' he murmured to her, pulling her up into a sitting position with him. 'Does DeHeere do take-away or catering?'

'Yeah. It's expensive as hell but they'll do it. Why?'

'Because I have a sudden urge to make it a stay-in date childless date night with you and eat in our bathrobes in front of a roaring fireplace rather than going all the way across town in date-night dress-up clothes.'

'But we've been looking forward to it for nearly two weeks,' Meredeth reminded him as she scooted off the bed to find her clothes. 'Wasn't that the point of shipping the Fab Four off on a school night?'

'No, the point was that we got to spend the time together,' Esposito replied, 'alone and uninterrupted. I'd much rather do that at home with you now that I'm planning a surprise for you for this weekend.'

Meredeth opened her mouth to protest she didn't need a grand gesture, that him giving her a quickie like that for the main reason of cheering her up was gesture enough but she knew better. Esposito must have been feeling just as guilty as she was if he was insisting on skipping dinner at DeHeere Grill so she shimmied her panties and jeans back up her hips, but opted for a cozy sweater instead of the top she'd been wearing when he'd come home.

'Do I get any hints on this surprise?'

'Not a one.' Esposito pecked her lips. 'I wouldn't mind your ear for the case we caught this morning.'

'Victor Hammond, I know.' Meredeth shook her head. 'Such a shame. It'll be interesting to see what happens to his wife.'

'His wife?'

'Well she worked for him, right? Running the house, booking his appointments, making sure his wardrobe was tidied and he had his kitchens stocked for when he invited tv crews into his home. It was almost like he married an agent that he slept with on a regular basis. Or a personal assistant.'

Esposito frowned over this while he hitched up his pants; put that way it was too close to the setup they had. 'You know I don't think of you like that, Mere. You're my wife, that means my life partner and partner in crime, not just-'

'Javi.' Meredeth crossed to him, pecked his lips. 'You and I are partners, like you said. The impression I always got from them was that Elaine was more like a well-loved nanny for an overgrown child.'

'Huh. You're definitely not that.'

'No. And that's a two-way street, buster,' she added, giving him one more kiss before she added a wink. 'Come on, we better head downstairs or they'll start to think we were making baby number five up here.'

'Kinda hard to have that happen since I got snipped.'

'I know.' That was another display of his love and respect for her, Meredeth knew, that he would give up his ability to make more babies with her so that she wouldn't have to endure another surgery so close after she'd given birth to Max. 'But the kids don't know that and they've got overactive imaginations as it is.'

Esposito chuckled, knowing she was completely right on that count; linking fingers with her, they headed back downstairs where they saw the kids still giggling away at the movie they were watching; Meredeth's brow furrowed when she saw they all had small dishes of chocolate frozen yogurt.

'What's up with the treats?' she asked, and Tessi had the good grace to look a little bit sheepish.

'Max wanted to go find out where you guys had gone so I bribed him with ice cream, and then the twins said they wanted some,' she explained, 'and well, I didn't want to be left out.'

'Ev-er-ee-one shares,' Max declared grandly, scraping his spoon along the edges of his bowl. 'Right ta-wins?'

'Right,' Leo and Trini chorused, Leo adding, 'you want some too, Mami and Daddy?'


	10. Treating the Family

The following morning, Esposito awoke to find Meredeth still in his arms, nude after their love making for the third time the previous night. It was still troubling him the way she'd described Victor and Elaine Hammond's relationship and not just because of the case; that was a separate kettle of fish altogether. No, he couldn't help but think of how Meredeth made it look so easy sometimes, balancing the house-running with her own ambitions. Much like Castle, he realized. Despite the man's party-boy exterior, at the heart he was a family man and every important decision he made was for the benefit of his children.

He shifted slightly, hoping he could ease out of bed quietly. He was on the role at eight this morning, which meant he'd get to see his children at breakfast this morning, a fact he knew pleased them all especially Tessi. She had told him of the vague memory she had of seeing him in the hospital with a white bandage around his forearm and giving it 'mooshes beddah' after an altercation with a suspect. He knew that when his children saw Meredeth 'give him one for good luck' much as they liked to make faces about kissing being gross it was a comfort to them as well.

His plan to be stealthy as a shadow was destroyed when he let out a sneeze so forceful it had Meredeth jolting awake. 'Sorry, baby,' he winced and Meredeth sank back onto the pillow.

'Loud,' she moaned, 'and not in the good way like last night.'

'There's my dirty Danish angel,' he grinned, glanced at the clock. 'Merry-Cherry, you have to get up too.'

'No.' Much like Tessi, who had inherited her mother's total distrust of morning starting before eight am, Meredeth actually dragged one of Esposito beloved goose-down pillows over her face. 'Shoo.'

'Okay, then I'll let Trini pick out her brother's clothes for school and Tessi make their lunches.'

The pillow was still in place as Meredeth held it over her face when she sat up. 'That is so not cool, Javier,' she said, her words slightly muffled.

'Shower together?'

'Sure.'

They slipped into the ensuite together, washing quickly so they could start their days with a bang; Meredeth was still washing her honey-brown hair when Esposito stepped out to shave and dress for the day. By the time she was done, she was toweled and in her at-home work clothes - an oversized sweater and comfortable leggings with her Ugg bootie-slippers - when she heard the sound of small feet along with her husband's heavier footfalls.

She went to the bedroom door and saw it was Max, her early bird, coming down the hallway with a grin on his face and his glasses slightly crooked. 'Hey Max Power, you're up early.'

'I gonna help Daddy wit' buh-reak-fass Mami. He say havin' pan-cakes today.'

Meredeth giggled; she loved the way her baby boy said 'pancakes' putting emphasis on each syllable. 'Did he now?'

'Uh-huh, he said you been ex'ra busy bein' sup-ah awesome mami so we havin' a 'pishal mornin'.'

'What else did Daddy say,' Meredeth asked, looking at Esposito over top of Max's dark curly head.

'He say he get us all up, you make coffee an' tea and be mos' _linda _mami ev-er,' the little boy replied dutifully, ticking the points off his little fingers. 'Tha' mean boo-tee-foh, righ' Daddy?'

'Exactly right my little professor.' Esposito met Meredeth with a kiss. 'Take this guy down stairs, he wants to see you in action. I've got Tessi Mutant Ninja Turtle to deal with before the twins.'

The sound of Max's giggle and Meredeth's snorting laughter was still in Esposito's ears when he opened up Tessi's door and found her, as usual, sprawled face down in her bed snoring into her pillow with her beloved Crush clutched in her right hand.

'Tessi,' he murmured to her and he had to stop himself from laughing when she only groaned and dragged a pillow over her head just like Meredeth. 'Tessi, come on, princess. Time to get up for school.'

'No.'

Exactly like her mother, he thought. 'Yes it is, or the twins will eat all the pancakes.'

'No teasing. Pancakes aren't for school days,' was her muffled response.

'I am making a special breakfast for Mami.'

'Oh. So she gets pancakes and we get cereal?'

'Tessiana.' Esposito removed the pillow from her head, waited until she'd unclenched her eyes to look at him. 'There's a fine line between being a skeptic and calling someone a liar.'

'Sorry, Daddy. We're really getting pancakes?'

'Really, really.'

'Okay. You go start working on that magical kitchen robot assistant I'll get the twins.'

Esposito chuckled, then headed downstairs; a quick glance out the window had him frowning. The weathermen had gotten the forecast right for once and they were getting the promised bucket-dump of snow blowing down from Vermont, which he realized meant that Tessi, Leo and Trini probably would be staying home from school for the day. That in turn meant the day Meredeth had planned for writing and baking would be put on hold to look after the kids.

Sure enough, when he went into the kitchen Meredeth was sitting with her MacBook at the kitchen table and grimacing at the screen. 'Snow day?'

'Snow day,' she echoed with a nod. At his chair beside her was Max with a serious expression on his face.

'We all be home?' he asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

'That's exactly right, Max,' Esposito agreed, taking out the jar of Meredeth homemade 'just add milk and eggs' pancake mix and was measuring it out into the glass mixing bowl. 'But Mami's going to need everyone to co-operate because she needs to work on her stories this morning.'

'Wha' coppah-wit mean?'

'That means everyone plays nicely together.'

'Oh.' Max nodded in his serious little way that made him just too adorable for words in Esposito's mind. 'I do tha', Daddy.'

'Good I'm glad. You want some juice?'

'Yes, poh-fav-oh, Daddy.'

He heard the sound of feet on the stairs and wasn't surprised when Tessi came down in her school uniform but the twins were still in their pyjamas. 'Sorry to disappoint you, Tessi, but-'

'No! You promised!' she howled, and Esposito gave a little laugh.

'Not the pancakes, princess, see?' He held up the bowl of batter he was whisking up. 'It's a snow day, the buses are canceled.'

'Yes!' Leo did a fist bump with his twin. 'That means one more day to practice my book reading-aloud.'

'No, no loud Leo,' Max told him sternly with a shake of his head. 'Mami haffa write to-day so we haffa be ex'ra good.'

'Oh of course Max, we'll be good for Mami,' Trini promised her little brother; he was such a little worrier just like Leo. 'But there is no reason Leo can't practice in our room and you and Tessi and me are the audience while Mami is working hard.'

'Oh. Okay!' His concern soothed, Max looked over at his father. 'When pan-cakes ready, Daddy?'

'Soon, Max. Maybe you can help your siblings set the table.'

As the four youngsters set about getting the table ready for breakfast, Esposito's cellphone went off. 'Esposito.'

'Hey it's Beckett. Captain K-Pow called, she said we're only on a skeleton crew because of the weather so we're gonna work out of my home office today.'

'Sweet. I'll see you around nine.'

'Sounds great, so- what? Oh, yes, sure. I have to ask on behalf of RJ if Trini would like snow-ball cookies because it's a snow-day or if she would like lemon-almond cookies.'


	11. Seeking a Friend's Advice I

Beckett had just finished brewing a pot of lattes for herself and Esposito when she heard the buzz at the door, indicating Esposito was there. She looked over at the kitchen table where she saw Jojo and RJ finishing off their morning toast and jam.

'Okay, guys, that's Detective Esposito so you know the drill.'

'We be goo',' Jojo replied, daintily cramming in the last of her bread crusts and washing it down with chocolate milk. ' 'Tay outta way fo' police work.'

'That's right Jojo,' RJ added, then winking cutely at his mother. 'I will make sure we are well behaved, Mumum.'

'When Daddy home,' Jojo asked as she wiped her mouth and fingers on her napkin. She loved jam but never the sticky feeling after it was done. 'He be okay in air-puh-lane?'

'Daddy's not home until tomorrow, bumblebee,' Beckett said, going to the door to let Esposito in. 'The storm will be over by then and he will be home from Kentucky safe and sound.'

'Okay. Hi-hi De-de-tiff!'

'Hey Jojo,' Esposito smiled at her sunny greeting. 'How are you this morning?'

'Mun-shee, De-de-tiff. We havin' toas'!'

'Nice. Max got to have his favourite chocolate chip pancakes today.'

'Lucky.'

'Pancakes, huh,' Beckett murmured with a subtle lift of her eyebrows and when Esposito gave her a cocky wink, she grinned widely. 'I'm looking forward to pancakes on Thursday.'

'Ah, yes, that's when Rick is back isn't it.'

'Mumum! May we be excused since you have to work now?' RJ asked politely, already standing up to take his plate to the sink.

'No inna-ruppin',' Jojo added, using the big-kid word her brother had taught her the day before; every day after school he'd been teaching her a new big-kid word and she was glad to have a reason to use it. 'We goo' rookies.'

'That's right we are,' RJ agreed with his sister.

'Take your plates to the sink and head on upstairs.'

The kids did so and when they were finished, Beckett wiped off the kitchen table before bringing over the pot of lattes and her file bag. 'It's going to be interesting to see Jojo wants to kill him. RJ's been getting up on his high big-brother horse and boss his little sister around lately.'

'Tessi thought I was tricking her when I promised pancakes this morning. I'd like to think she can believe a promise from her daddy.'

'Hey.' She looked at him, saw there was a slight weariness to his expression. It was one he knew came from worrying about Meredeth. 'Everything okay at home?'

'Do you think I take Meredeth for granted?'

Beckett burst out laughing. 'What?'

'Do I take my wife for granted, everything she does for me and supporting my career as a cop, looking after our babies, running the house while having her own writing career?'

'Not at all.' She shook her head firmly. 'You know how I know?'

'How?'

'Because if you did, when she makes you those delicious lunches, you'd bitch about how she didn't get something right instead of looking like a drooling dog finding an unguarded plate of hamburgers every time you open your bag.'

'I suppose that's true.'

Esposito thought of when he'd come home all those late nights after being detained at work, to a loving note from Meredeth on the fridge that he could warm up dinner on the stove and then find her in bed after giving their children kisses goodnight. He'd never thought how she made something the kids like and he didn't, he'd just been so grateful for a home-cooked meal he'd let the day drift away while he waited for it to warm so he could enjoy the gifts of his family unfettered.

Beckett saw him mulling things over, put a hand on his arm. 'Are you guys having problems?'

'No, she just said she hasn't been feeling...special, I guess, lately.'

'Well, it has been a pretty insane month,' she reminded him while they unpacked their work notes. 'You guys haven't had a lot of time for yourselves lately.'

'No we haven't. But I've already got a plan to make it up to her taking shape.'

'Good. She'll love it. Now, can we focus on the case.'

'Sure.' Esposito nodded, glad to have something else to focus on besides his worries he hadn't been the best husband to Meredeth could be. 'Where are we?'

'After the television studios stop yesterday, I started to run backgrounds on the people who worked on the show.'

'Shit, that's gonna be a lot of names.'

'How do you figure? It's only a crew of fifty-two names, we can drag Adam in to help us, that's about seventeen names each.'

Esposito took the list from her, scanned it. 'What about the guests of the show? And the ones who auditioned and didn't get picked? Remember the Bodega Stalker case with Meredeth when we first started dating? We found them because of an Internet forum.'

'Very true, but Meredeth's a writer, they have a much different breed of superfan than media personalities. Remember Amber van Houston?'

'Touche,' he murmured, sipping his coffee; the move made Beckett breathe a little sigh of relief. She didn't like it when her big-bro worried about Meredeth nor when Meredeth worried about her hubby. 'Okay so for now we focus on the immediate people in his life and more important, finding Elaine. Has there been any pops on her card activity?'

'No.'

'What about under her maiden name, Elaine Morrison?'

'What?' Beckett looked up, her brain clicking away.

'Meredeth suggested that she might have her own pocket account of funds that wouldn't pop on our search because she kept it in her maiden name. A lot of celebrities with trophy wives whose career is looking after their powerful husbands will keep an account for themselves privately like that so when the inevitable divorce occurs they aren't left high and dry.'

Suddenly, Esposito's anxiety over being a good husband to Meredeth made much more sense. Beckett reached over, gave his arm a squeeze again. 'The only way Meredeth and you would split up is if one of you were dead. We both know that, Javier.'

'I know, but...you know that phrase 'I love you but right now it's hard to like you' a lot of people use in a fight? I'm having that fight with myself right now.'

'Understood. How about a gruesome murder to focus on instead?' Esposito nodded quietly, and Beckett slapped the table definitively. 'Good. If the weather can let up even for an hour, we're going out for lunch.'

'What about the nice gruesome murder to solve?'

'Multitasking, Detective. We're going to see our favourite ex-con at his new place of employment.'

'Of course.' Why he hadn't had that thought himself before, when Lanie had said Victor Hammond was drugged with roofies in his health shake? 'You think he'll be working today?'

'Oh yeah. Body told me on days like today, they get a lot of catering requests. It's like a pinata inside a blizzard.'

'You think they'll have those strawberry blintzes on the specials board?'

Beckett laughed; if he was dreaming about food she knew he couldn't be too far gone. 'I have no idea. They have their own greenhouse to have fresh produce year-round so maybe.'

'Meredeth's blintzes are better, she does them up Danish style with cinnamon sugar-stewed apples,' he replied out of reflex, ready to defend his wife's cooking prowess; it made Beckett smile even more.

'And a guy who treats his wife like a servant would never say something like that.'


	12. Tapping a Source

The weather gods had apparently heard Beckett's prayer and by shortly after one, when Esposito and Beckett were ready for a break from burning their eyes out over phone and financial records, the snow had stopped enough that they ventured out to East Sixteenth Street at Third Avenue, just a block north from Alexis and Shane's apartment.

'Can you smell that?' Esposito said as she opened the door. 'I smell strawberries.'

'Funny, I smell a potential lead.'

'You don't think he's got anything to do with it, do you?'

'No,' Beckett shook her head. 'He values his freedom way too much now. But he'll still have an ear to the ground, know things a guy like him is used to knowing.'

Esposito nodded; so many people he'd seen truly go straight after prison time kept in touch to make sure their own asses didn't have targets painted on. He stepped up to the counter and was pleased to see Body there, his perpetually messy hair wrestled into the submission of a queue tucked beneath a neon-orange bandana. His eyes twinkled with delight when he saw them, and he wiped his hands on the towel tucked into his apron.

'Hey guys, how's it going? Don't tell me you're actually working today in that crap.'

'Working yes, on the street, no. We need to see our favourite ex-con, Body,' Beckett told him pleasantly.

'Sure. Yo, kitchen boy, you got a sexy lady wanting your ass out here!'

Beckett just shook her head and laughed as the skinny man in his fifties with greying ash blond hair and a beaming smile in a still-hollow looking face emerge from the back room. 'Hi Roman, how's it going.'

'If I'd know you were gracing the place, I'd have put on a clean shirt,' he joked, gesturing to the marks of vegetable and fruit juice on his clean white chef's shirt. 'You guys here to check up on me or lunch or what?'

'Lunch and what,' Esposito replied. 'You're looking good.'

'Turns out making an honest living's much more rewarding when you know the alternative.' Roman hadn't forgotten what these cops had done for him and he turned to the specials board to scan the options. 'I'd reccommend the Albacore tuna melts on ciabatta. Brined the pickles myself and did the veggie chips, too. Two coffees too?'

'Make it three, Roman. We need your expterise from your former life for a new case.'

'That would be the 'what', right Esposito?' Roman asked him and the cop nodde.d. 'Alright. I'll bring over your sandwiches and coffees in a moment. The inside booth is free there.'

Beckett and Esposito sat down, looked over where Roman was hard at work getting their lunch ready. They'd learned, after he was released with a full pardon from the mayor, that while he'd been serving time on a murder he didn't commit Roman had worked in the prison kitchen and gotten pretty good as a prep chef. Once released, he'd begun applying to restaurants all over town but none had wanted to hire him. That had changed when he'd walked into Love on a Bun and told them to give him a two-week pay-free probationary period. Body and the owner had been so impressed with him that they'd hired him and for the last two and a half years he'd been working steadily and happily chopping vegetables, making pickles and jam and tending to the greenhouse garden the sandwich shop maintained for year-round fresh produce.

When it was brought over and Roman sat in the booth beside Esposito - he always liked to look at Kate Beckett square-on - he added cream from the little pitcher on the table and nodded.

'So you think one of the guys I knew on the inside fucked up his parole or something?'

'Not exactly. We have a case where the victim was poisoned with roofies, and we thought-'

'Hey, you know when I say I'm straight, I'm straight,' Roman said, instinctively going on the defensive. 'I ain't touching that shit ever again. Hell, I don't even like taking aspirin anymore for a headache.'

'We thought you might still know who can sell it to a wealthy, middle-aged white woman who didn't want any flags going up,' Beckett continued.

'We're talking top grade product, like Park Avenue party-time quality,' Esposito added when he saw Roman unclench. 'And this customer, as far as we can tell, was a one-hit wonder.'

'Okay, okay, I see what you mean.' Roman scraped his hand over the lower half of his face, thought about it. 'When I ran the streets with the pushers, it was the rich wasp boys who came trolling for date-rape drugs. I never touched that shit. Real men don't need to terrorize their women for sex.'

Beckett nodded, let him get it out. 'What about within, say, the last six months? Anyone have any pharmacy grade Rophypnol for sale?'

'Most rich wasp boys I knew liked GHB. Less expensive way to violate their prey of the night. But...but-but...' Roman sipped his coffee, thought it over. 'I saw a guy from the old neighbourhood last week, said he heard of Gandalf tossing cash around and boasting about some hot sales he'd made.

'Gandalf?'

'Gandalf the White Wizard, pusher of all white pills and powders. Looks like a Ken doll, Mister Joe College from the lower side of Central Park.'

'What's your take on him?'

'Cocky, disrespectful little punk.' Roman all but spat it. 'He's been picked up twice by your boys in blue, but thinks he'll stay insulated because he's got money.'

'Nothing insulates you forever from a murder charge.' Beckett picked up her fork and knife, letting Roman know the interview part was done and it was time for food. 'You of all people know better than that.'

'Yes, yes I do. How's the food?'

'Delicious. Pickles are great,' Esposito added, knowing he could use the confidence boost.

'Can I ask who got tapped by the Grim Reaper this time?' Roman asked, and Beckett nodded.

'It's Victor Hammond, the chef from _Kitchen Gladiators_.'

'Oh, yeah, I thought I saw you on the news-clip. Damn, that's a shame.' He sipped more coffee. 'How's Bobby Minnelli taking it?'

'What?'

'They were lovers, you know. I read it on that gossip site, TMZ. Elaine's just a front or something.'

'I think that's just people looking for ratings or trying to sell magazines, Roman.' Beckett wrinkled her nose.

'Well, either way. If my tip pans out, you let me know, okay? We get lots of college girls in here and I want to make sure they don't go hanging around with this guy.'

'For sure.'

Roman nodded, drained his coffee cup. 'Alright, I gotta get back to the Friday specials. We're doing a grilled ham and cheese, but the ham needs to be brined.'

'Take care of yourself, Roman,' Esposito called after him before digging into his lunch. He moaned when he tasted it. 'This is awesome.'

'Roman's a good guy and he's smart, but he's also very trusting,' Beckett observed.

'And birds go tweet. What else you got?'

'No, I mean, he's the kind of guy a killer would like to use because he won't nose around in other people's business and then be the fall guy.'

Esposito sipped his coffee, pondered it. 'Yeah he is. What are you thinking?'

'I'm thinking that maybe our killer used his own patsy to get the drugs in the house. Elaine Hammond buying drugs would have popped on the gossip radar.'

'You think Elaine had something to do with it?'

'What if someone had a vendetta against him and used her taking care of Victor to poison him?' Beckett asked.


	13. Welcoming Loved Ones Home

As there was little more they could do that day after meeting Roman and updating their captain, the dynamic duo split up for the day with Esposito heading home, a box of strawberry blintzes in hand while Beckett headed for the loft. She loathed cases that crossed with Missing Persons, not only because of the despair on the faces of the victims' families but also because the waiting always gummed up the works, leaving the killers or other culprits time to get away.

She sighed as she unlocked the door to the loft. Tomorrow would be an action packed day, no question. They would have to get to all the questions and interviews they feasibly couldn't today, not when they were told only essential personnel were to be called in.

When Beckett walked in, she tried to let it go and take in the sensations of home - the warmth of the room, the sounds of her children's voices with Shane while he read to them, the scent of hot chocolate. She slipped off her boots and jacket quietly, smiling to herself as she listened to Shane reading _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone _while Jojo asked questions and RJ answered them for her.

'Why Hah-wee talk-a suh-nakies?'

'Because it's a special power he has as a wizard.'

'But why? Suh-nakies icky. They all icky.'

'You thought Mia at the Bronx Zoo was pretty cool, Jojo,' Beckett called over to them from by the door and both her children looked up with gasps of delight. Jojo, who had wrapped her blanket around her body like a cape, flew over to her mother and gave her a big hug.

'Mumum! You home soon! You suh-niff-ah-lee?'

'No, I'm not sniffly, bumblebee,' Beckett replied, crouching to hug her daughter back. 'I couldn't do a lot today because of the weather so I did everything I could and then came home.'

'We haffin' suh-tory time,' she informed her, tugging on her mother's hand. 'Wit' hot shocolat an' mushy-mellows.'

'Really? That sounds so yummy, Jojo.'

'Shane make it sup-ah fancy fo' me an' Ah-Shay.'

'But that's not the best part, Mumum,' RJ added; he'd hung back to let his little sister go first since she was smaller. 'There is a surprise for you upstairs.'

'Up-tairs,' Jojo echoed, pointing her little index finger at the ceiling. 'It a 'pishal 'pise.'

'Did you guys get me a koala bear?'

'No,' RJ giggled. 'But we know what the surprise is and you don't so you have to go upstairs to find it.'

'You gonna love it!'

Beckett nodded, kissed her babies, then headed for the stairs. Her brain was still preoccupied with work, so much so that she didn't register the sound of water being run as she shoved open her bedroom door.

'Hello, Detective.'

She stopped short, jaw dropping in delight when she saw her husband there, his suitcase on the bed while the tub in the ensuite filled with hot water. 'Rick!' Beckett bounded over to him, wrapped her arms around him s she planted a whopping kiss on his mouth. 'What are you doing home? I thought you were flying back tomorrow?'

'I saw the weather reports and told Paula I needed to get home to my family.' Castle held her tight against him. 'Besides, leaving you alone for nearly a week is enough to make me crazy. Or give me carpal tunnel syndrome. Probably both.'

'You're so gross,' she laughed, 'and I love you. That tub almost ready?'

'Yes ma'am, and-'

It was all Beckett needed to hear. After a long day of what felt like twiddling her thumbs while babysitting a paranoid Esposito, she could use a hot bath and her hotter hubby to join her. She unclipped her badge and gun to stow them in her bureau safe; when they were secured she was already out of her sweater and pants and peeling away her socks before Castle could start his brain back up after the welcome home kiss she gave him.

'Wait for me, speedy,' he chuckled, and once naked slipped into the tub behind her, loving how the foamy bubble teased the upper curve of her breasts, just covering up enough to tantalize him. 'Quite the welcome home.'

'For both of us,' she agreed, moaning softly when Castle rubbed her shoulders, then pressed his thumbs to the spots at the curve of her neck where tension and stress always liked to sit. 'Oh that feels so good, Rick. How did you get the kids to stay quiet so they didn't blab it to me when I walk in the door?'

'I may or may not have told them that they wouldn't get their surprise until later if they blew the surprise for you that I was home early.' Castle leaned forward, reached for the shampoo bottle. 'One of the other authors at the signing week was Perdita Salvador, she writes the LuLu Stockett series RJ likes to read to Jojo. I got them autographed copies of _Cupcake Conundrum,_ it's only available online right now but Perdita gave me two of her five leftover copies for the tots.'

'They'll love those.'

'How's the case going?' he asked her, thinking of the conversation they'd had the night before when she told him about Victor Hammond.

'Hard. Elaine's still missing and so all the problems that causes are just giving me and Esposito both a headache. We can't touch the stuff in the house at the crime scene in case it pertains to Elaine's disappearance so we have to solve a murder on the victim alone without the crime scene.'

'That does suck. What else is bothering you?'

'Man, I must be tired if you can see through me that easily,' Beckett sighed as her head rolled forward while her husband continued to massage her shoulders.

'Yes, it's because you're tired, not because we've been together ten years and I know your heart, body and soul as well as my own.' Castle pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. 'What's got you worried?'

'Esposito. Hes freaking out that he doesn't appreciate his wife.'

Much like Beckett had that morning, Castle burst out laughing. 'Is he on drugs? Javier Esposito worships the ground Meredeth walks on. What the fuck would give him that idea?'

'He thinks the fact that Victor Hammond had this wife who worked from home and ran the house is similar to him and Meredeth, I guess Meredeth told him last night she was feeling like just a mom lately.'

'Well, it's been a busy six weeks since Christmas so year, I get that on both their parts. But seriously, Javi has nothing to worry about.'

'So why is he?'

'Because that's what good guys do, Kate. Good guys, we worry about turning into assholes and our egos need to be soothed with the reassurance we're not assholes. The assholes don't worry because they don't think they're doing anything wrong to begin with.'

'Huh. So the fact Esposito's worried to start with proves how much he does appreciate his wife.'

'Exactly. He's coming for cards this week, which will help to bro-talk it out.'

'Bro-talk it out?'

'We don't share our feelings over mint-chip ice cream and Meg Ryan movies. We pummel things at the gym or whine over cards and beer. But that can wait. Right now, it's time for you...and me...' Castle punctuated his words with kisses to his wife's soft skin '...to get...a little wet...and wild.'

'Agreed.'

When they'd finished making love as quietly as they could in their bathtub so as not to arouse RJ's highly sensitive 'baby-practice' radar, Beckett traced her fingertips in the bubbles, snuggled against Castle's chest.

'I'm glad you're home Rick.'

'Me too.'


	14. Seeking a Friend's Advice II & III

The following morning, when Beckett picked up Esposito he was somewhat more himself which told him that he was on his way to making things right with Meredeth. 'Feeling better today, Detective?' she asked him, and he nodded.

'Getting there. The strawberry blintzes I brought home last night were a good first step, though Meredeth told me I don't need to give her a gift every day of the week this week since I've already got a plan for her and I on Friday and Saturday. Is Rick going to be available this weekend?'

'Yeah, I think so, why?'

'I'm getting the guys together to puppy proof the house.'

'Oh that's right, Tortuga comes to her new home on Sunday, doesn't she?'

'Yes, she does.'

'Well, hold onto the thought of new puppies and strawberry blintzes because Lanie called and we're meeting her at the morgue for her official final report.'

Esposito nodded, trying to switch into cop mode as they made their way through the plowed streets of Manhattan; they arrived at the morgue just in time to find Shane in the autopsy theatre with Lanie, holding out a box of peppernoten. They both smiled when they saw the cops approach and Shane held out the box to Esposito.

'Biscuit? Alexis was baking on her snow day yesterday.'

'Ooh, sounds good.' Esposito took a cookie, bit in and thought about his wife always baking. 'You don't always expect these from Alexis, do you Shane?'

'Oh, Christ, Espo,' Beckett muttered, making both Shane and Lanie blink in confusion. 'Not more of this.'

'Did I miss something?' Lanie asked quietly.

'No,' Shane answered Esposito's question, 'these are a treat and the fact she makes them for me without me begging, just because they cheer me up, is one of many reasons she's the best.'

'Oh. Okay.'

'You and Meredeth have a fight over her cooking?'

'In a manner of speaking.' Esposito explained it to him and Lanie and Shane both nodded. 'It's- I don't know, it's just got me worried that Meredeth thinks I don't appreciate what she does for me and our family.

'Shit, Javi,' Shane waved it off. 'You are a great husband. You are always texting her little love notes, right? Checking in when you want to hear a friendly voice?'

'Yeah.'

'So? That's what the good husband does. Don't forget for almost a year, the first year Alexis and I were married, we did that all the time because she was studying at Princeton. It's how we always made sure we kept things strong.'

'There, see?' Beckett reached for a cookie. 'Now enough of this or I'll tie you to the grill of my car with razor wire.'

'Noted, Detective.'

'Now that we have our _Temptation Lane_ moments done.' Cookies successfully mooched from Shane, he left while Lanie went to her work bench, held up a file folder. 'Victor Hammond's autopsy report. No other non-prescription drugs in his system. He took a daily tablet to keep his cholesterol in check but he had to lung or heart disease, no signs of liver or kidney failure and no other signs of trauma save for the seventeen stab wounds in his back.'

'Any trace back from the labs? What about the bloodwork?' Beckett asked, nibbling her cookie.

'Blood alcohol indicates a point-zero-zero-five level, and his stomach contents consisted of pasta, creamy tomato bolognaise, garlic bread, Italian red, and his smoothie about five hours later.'

'So he had wine with dinner then his protein shake before bed,' Esposito deduced. 'If we had Elaine here, we could have asked if that's part of his bedtime routine or if the killer would have planted it there for him.

Beckett opened her mouth to speak, then stepped into the hallway when her cellphone rang. Alone with his friend, Esposito sighed heavily. 'We really need to find Elaine Hammond. She has the majority of what we need to know, those little nuances of his personality only a wife knows.'

The misery in his voice was so loud and clear that Lanie had to take a minute to compose herself and her thoughts carefully. 'Javier,' she told him quietly. 'You are not Victor Hammond. I've read reports that as much of a class-act he is, he did have problems with his wife.'

'Everyone goes through tough times in their marriage.'

'Really, well, did you know that he apparently gives her an allowance for the household and she keeps only the leftovers for herself to have a life, that he pays for everything?'

'Where do you hear these things, Lanie?'

'Gossip sites, topic forums. Slow nights in the lab means time well wasted on the Internet. I file it away to ask Meredeth, my to-go guru of all things pop culture,' Lanie told him with a smile. 'You, on the other hand have been dedicated to Meredeth from day one, we all know that, there is no-one in the world you look at like you do your wife. I know because my husband looks at me the same way. Hell Dave even keeps personal photos of me on his phone.'

'I keep personal photos of Mere and the kids on my phone too. Digital bragbooks are way easier than hard copies these days.'

'No, I mean,' she chuckled, 'Dave keeps _personal_ photos of me on his phone.'

'Oh. Oh, Lanie!' Esposito winced. 'I don't need to think about you naked and posing for Dave! You're my friends, both of you! It's bad enough Ryan walked in on me and Meredeth making Tessi, I don't need to-'

'Judging from that reaction, I'm going guessing you have pictures like that of Meredeth on your phone too, right?'

'Well, sure but...oh...okay, very crafty Doctor Parrish-Robbins.' He wagged his finger at her as she grinned wickedly. 'Okay so that's three in the yes column.'

'There you go.'

Beckett swung back in, grinning as widely as Lanie. 'God bless Roman Moore,' she all but trilled, 'we have a line on the roofies. What were you two talking about?'

'Photography. I was thinking of having some family pictures and asking Esposito how much Sloan charges,' Lanie blithely covered, though she and Beckett both knew it was a fib just to keep everyone happy and focused on the job. 'It's all on her website?'

'Yep, under 'Packages and Promos'. All regular prices are listed there.'

'Great. Now if you two liars are done,' Beckett told them, the grin never faltering from her face, 'we have a drug-dealer to arrest for accessory to murder.'

* * *

><p>Roman Moore had pulled through in fine style in his description of the drug dealer known as Gandalf - they'd gotten him in with Adam looking through mug-shot books and had picked out one Thomas Jeremiah 'Jed' Callow IV, old real estate money from the Upper West Side who was a junior at Hudson University's business school. He was on track to being an MBA and junior VP of the family business before he hit twenty-five.<p>

Of course, the fact he was being dragged in on murder charges to a downtown police precinct might put a crimp in that, Esposito thought, and Roman had been dead accurate in his description; the kid had sandy blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and teeth he was certain were bonded they were so white. The kid had white-boy swagger stamped all over his face, but two could play that game.

He went in ahead of Beckett, giving her time to let Captain Karpowski see them in action for this one, and slapped Jed's record file down. Esposito pulled out the chair, turned it backwards as he stared Jed down.

'So, Jed, tell me,' he asked calmly, almost casually like an afterthought, 'where's Elaine Hammond?'


	15. Spinning a Story

'What?'

'Where is Elaine Hammond?' Esposito repeated, staring calmly as a hawk awaiting his chosen mouse to make a move. 'You might as well tell me and save yourself a headache because either way you're going down for accessory to murder.'

Jed curled his lip. 'I want a lawyer.'

'You're entitled to a lawyer, naturally-'

'I want to sue your ass off.' The college boy leaned forward, rested his elbows on the table. 'Surely you know who my family is, how much money and position they have. You'll be lucky if you're working dock security in Hoboken by the time they're through with you for this little stunt.'

'I know who your family is, Jed. They're the ones who paid up to make sure that the heir apparent only had the one drug charge in his police file. They're also the ones you love to piss off because you've been seen at parties busted up for underage drinking and where other people were passing around the party favours.'

He knew it was probably sick of him but Esposito got a nice little thrill when he watched Jed's spray-tanned face go pale as potato flour as he showed him the photos of Victor Hammond's punctured, lifeless and bloody body. 'This guy had pharmacy grade Rohypnol in his system. Word on the street is you're the go-to guy for the high-dollar party favours. You see where I'm going with this?'

'No, I- no, I'm not into this sick shit,' Jed stammered. 'I didn't kill anybody.'

'I didn't say you did,' Esposito replied in an almost chipper voice he knew would have Karpowski and Beckett snickering on the other side of the glass; if Ryan were in town, he'd be placing bets on whether Jed would wet his pants. 'I said you were an accessory to murder. This guy was stabbed to death after someone slipped him roofies, the kind out of your powdered pockets. But the State of New York, they'll consider you as guilty as the person who did stab him and beyond that, they'd also believe that you and your partner would know where Elaine Hammond is.'

'I didn't kill anybody!' Jed had gone from white to red as he leaped to his feet and shouted his protest. 'I just sold the rich white bitch the drugs, that's all I did. You wanna slap my wrist and put me in front of the judge for trafficking, you go right ahead bro. But I didn't kill anyone, I just thought she wanted them for a good night's sleep.'

'Alright, alright.' Still cool as a cucumber Esposito lifted his hands in a calm-down motion. 'Let's just take a breath, Jed. You want a drink? A Coke or coffee?'

'Coke. Sure.'

Esposito nodded, detailed a break in interview as per the interviewee's request for a drink. He left the interview room and met up with Karpowski and Beckett. 'You think he knows where she is, Detective?' Karpowski asked him.

'Yes, sir, I do. He sold her the drugs, he probably knows more than he thinks.'

'If he cracks, get him on drug trafficking, push probation for accessory to murder. If he sold that woman the drugs and she used them to kill Victor, there's no skirting the fact he's an accessory.'

Esposito nodded, gave the vending machine a tip so an ice-cold coke spat out the delivery slot. 'Beckett? What are you thinking?'

'I'm thinking we get him to crack, we'll know a hell of a lot more than we did this morning. You keep working him though, I need to make a phone call.'

'I'll observe,' Karpowski volunteered, gave them a grin as she tugged at the hem of her jacket. 'It's the thing I miss the most about the streets. Getting in the ring and boxing.'

'You're good in the chair too, sir.' Esposito walked with her back to the interview room where Jed looked like he'd been bitch-slapped by the boogeyman. He set the can on the table where Jed stared at it like an unstable bomb. 'Thirsty?'

Jed said nothing at first, just took the can and cracked it open; he'd guzzled half of it before setting it back down and opening his mouth. 'I didn't know it was Elaine Hammond that was seeing me to get those drugs.'

'Let's back up. How did you get in touch with her?'

'A client of mine, she's a chronic insomniac but she doesn't have health-care so paying my fees keeps her going. She is up for days if she can't get chemically induced sleep. Anyways, the same client, she tells me the lady she works for, her husband is having the same problems, could I give her a little extra this time around.'

'Who is this client?'

'She calls herself Jay. French, I think, pretty girl. About thirty or so, light-skinned black. Great body. I always see her running with dogs in Central Park.'

Esposito's heart sank; it was an accurate description of Jeannette Saint-Pierre. 'What happened with her the day she was supposed to pick up the extra pills?'

'Never happened. She told me the lady wanted to meet me in person instead and gave me an appointment card where to meet her.' Jed pulled the card from his wallet, passed it to Esposito who used the tip of his pen to drag it closer on the table. 'I met her, I gave her the drugs, she gave me the cash and I walked away. That's it.'

Espsoito looked at the card, saw the trademark of Victor Hammond's personal stationary - he recognized it because the idea of someone having personalized stationary for appointments in this digital day and age struck him as classy and old-fashioned. The handwriting was neat and precise, so precise it could have been mistaken for being computer-generated.

_Essex Crown Motel. January 14. 11:30am. Ask for Aurora White at the desk._

'What kind of place was this? SRO, chain, exclusive?'

'Not a drug flop but not the Waldorf or the Plaza,' Jed admitted, pointed his index finger to the ceiling. 'They definitely have cameras, though, I saw the little surveillance domes in the ceiling when I walked in.'

'How did you know it was Elaine Hammond?'

'I recognized her from _Kitchen Gladiators_ as a guest judge. She's a pretty together lady, but she was definitely shaken up being there. I figured it was because she was nervous about meeting with me, not why she needed the drugs.'

Esposito nodded, made notes. 'What did you sell her, what did she pay?'

'I sold her twelve tablets, two-seventy-five apiece. Told her she'd only need one for a good night's sleep, drop it in something thick like a milkshake if she didn't want to think too hard about taking a pill. She thanked me and said, you know who I am right? I nodded, said yes ma'am, I did, and she gave me another five hundred bucks to keep my mouth shut.'

'When you heard about Victor Hammond's death two days later, what did you do?'

'What did I do?' Jed repeated, flicking the tab of the Coke can with his finger.

'What was your reaction when you heard this man, whose wife was your client two days ago, was dead in his own home?'

'I figured some crazy fan got to him, it never occurred to me what I had used was one of the murder weapons, until you showed me those pictures.'

Esposito nodded once more, then put his pen down, folded his hands on the table. 'So, all of this circles back to my original question. Where is Elaine Hammond now?'

'She looked so stressed out after she paid me, like almost crying, and I asked her if she needed some place safe to stay, she said she was going to be staying at the hotel for a week just to get some peace.'


	16. Pondering the Similarities

With Jed tied up in Booking, Beckett and Esposito were heading for the parking garage to Beckett's ride to find Elaine Hammond. It was thin and a long shot, but it was more than they had that morning; Esposito said as much to her as they peeled out of the garage.

'Espo, let me do the talking to her. From Jed's description of how she sounded, she could probably use a woman's understanding.'

'Jesus, Kate, you're making it sound like...' Esposito trailed off.

'Like what?'

'Like she's been abused.'

When Beckett said nothing in response to that, he looked over at her. 'What? You think she's been smacked around?'

'Worse. I think that son of a bitch has been gas-lighting her.'

'How do you figure?'

'I was looking more closely at the financial records while you were in Interview. Elaine technically had pay from Eat Street Enterprises, Victor's company that owns the restaurant and produces the television show, but she only received a fraction of it. Victor took all of it and doled out to her just enough to cover the house expenses. He bought her everything.'

'Okay,' Esposito drew out the word, confused. 'Why would she let him do that?'

'I also took inventory in the bathroom, did a little research on the pill bottles I found in Elaine's medicine cabinet. She was on severe anti-anxiety medication, which her own physician didn't prescribe her. It was a shrink that Victor made her see.'

Esposito felt a sick punch as he remembered Meredeth going to see the specialist her own psychiatrist recommended to her. Though her night terrors were long gone Meredeth still went once a month to see her therapist for the simple reason that they both knew it reminded her of all the demons she'd conquered and that she wanted to stay healthy. He tried to put it from his mind as Beckett continued revealing the information she'd found during Esposito's two hours with Jed.

'She also kept a food diary in her bedside table, everything she ate, including her sodium, cholesterol, fat, calories, and if she went over her daily allotment of calories, she would multiply it by one hundred and deny herself that the next day.'

'That's horrible.' Esposito felt the sick punch to the stomach again as he once more thought of his wife, trying so hard to keep her weight at a healthy level when she'd gotten pregnant with Tessi. 'Why would she do that?'

Beckett turned the wheel so they were heading east through the intersection towards Midtown. 'She kept the information in a calendar diary. All the dates of her binging coincide with television appearances and public appearances.'

'I get wanting to keep your figure, stay healthy and fit but that is more than a little extreme.'

Beckett didn't say anything for a moment, just drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She knew exactly where her fellow detective's mind had gone and this time, she couldn't blame him.

'Javier,' she said after a quiet lull to let him think it through, 'you heard Shane and Lanie this morning, you are not Victor Hammond. You don't do things like this to Meredeth. She'd kick your ass if you even called her tubby.'

'Mere's not tubby,' he retorted vehemently.

'My point. You'd never say that, or think it, even when she was pregnant with twins. Now belt up, because we've got a suspect to bring in.'

They rose in silence until the parked on the street a block away from the Essex Crown Motel; as a precaution Beckett and Esposito both strapped on their vests though both doubted that Elaine would have a weapon of any kind. The manager showed them up to the room after grousing over the police presence being bad for business and knocked on the door of Elaine's room.

'Miss White? Management.'

There was no response, and when the manager tried to offer an apologetic 'privacy is most important' smile, but Beckett simply brushed past him and pounded her fist on the door. 'Elaine Hammond! NYPD, open up!'

She counted to thirty in her head, then glared at the manager. 'Unlock the door.'

'But, ma'am, there is obviously no-one here, I can't just-'

'Open the door,' Beckett repeated in a low, icy tone. She watched him slip the credit-card key into the slot, let the light turn green.

The moment they were inside, she was cursing and swearing at the sight she saw. 'Goddamn it! Espo! Call an ambulance!'

Esposito had his communicator out as Beckett leaped to the single queen-sized bed in the centre of the room where Elaine Hammond lay half-dressed with a pill bottle in her left hand, the contents spilling out to the floor. She put her fingers to the unconscious woman's throat, felt the faint thread of the pulse.

'She's got a pulse, just barely, and she's breathing.'

Esposito relayed the information, went to the closet to find anything to cover her up. The cop instinct to preserve the scene was strong, but the human instinct to help another human in distress was stronger. He found a robe that was surely one-hundred percent silk and draped it over her body to try and keep her warm.

'Meredeth says silk robes are really warm even though they feel light,' he said quietly.

'ETA on the ambulance?'

'Less than ten.'

They waited on tenterhooks until the paramedics arrived and took Elaine to Stuyvesant Memorial. The cops followed them to the hospital where they were forced to leave their contact information with the doctor they would be able to talk to her the moment she was stable and awake.

Once back in the Crown Vic, both sat in silence as they quietly prayed for Elaine to pull through. Finally Esposito spoke.

'You think she kept a few pills like the kind she slipped to her husband?'

'No. I saw the bottle in her hand after I checked her vitals. It's another prescription from the shrink. Xanax.'

'Ouch.'

Beckett went to put her hand on the keys in the ignition when a thought struck her. 'Esposito? What was missing from the crime scene?'

'The weapon, but we figured the killer took it with him or her.'

'Exactly. Elaine checked into her room before the murder. What if she brought the murder weapon with her to protect a partner?'

'We don't have a search warrant, Kate,' Esposito pointed out as she got out of the car. 'We couldn't use that in evidence.'

'We still have probable cause, Detective.'

They headed back inside and the manager pokered up like he'd swallowed a lemon when he saw them coming. 'What now,' he groused, 'more dead bodies?'

'We need to return to Elaine Hammond's room to complete our search.'

'On what authority?'

'Sir, if you don't let us back in, you will be under arrest for obstruction of justice and impeding an officer in a legitimate search.'

The manager rose to the balls of his feet to try and get in her face. 'I have a right to protect my guests.'

'Espo,' was all Beckett said and Esposito stepped up with his cuffs already in hand.

'Turn around sir.'

'This is harassment!' The manager spluttered.

'No, this is what happens when you get in the way of the cops. Now.' Beckett cocked her head to the side as she watched him wriggle in the restraints. 'We can do this in one of two ways. One, you go downtown to be processed and booked for those charges I just listed while I get a warrant for the room. Two, you can let us back in now, as we came here with probably cause to question Elaine Hammond and we need to examine her effects. What's it going to be?'


	17. Discovering the Weapon

'Kate?'

'Javi?'

'Did Lanie tell us what kind of knife we're looking for?'

Beckett turned away from looking through the drawers, saw Esposito on his stomach searching under the bed. 'Smooth edge, stainless-steel kitchen grade.'

'Huh.'

'Why?'

'Because it just seems like so much excess. If she had the pills, why couldn't she just overdose him if she wanted to kill him?' Esposito rolled to his back, sat up. 'Or did she do both to make sure she could stomach it?'

'You think she killed him?'

'With that level of manipulation? Oh yeah. No one could live like that forever. Sooner or later, everyone reaches a breaking point.'

Beckett tipped her head back and forth as if she was letting the idea roll around in her mind. 'Everyone reaches a breaking point, but what makes the difference is how you fight back.'

'Looks like Elaine fought back against her abuser.'

'Looks like,' she echoed, then frowned when she came across a hard make-up case. 'Hey, might have something here.'

Esposito got to his feet, dusted his knees and hands off. 'What's that?'

'Make-up case. Lindsay has one for her manicure set very much like this and it's packed to the gills.'

'Okay, and this make it suspicious because...?'

Beckett simply picked up the case with her gloved hands and shook it; it rattled like a loosely packed Christmas present. 'A woman as meticulous as Elaine Hammond would not have this so carelessly assembled.'

She lifted the lid, carefully took out the top shelf full of pencils and brushes and cotton swabs. Beneath, where should have been the removable compartment for taller bottles was a bloody knife wrapped in cling-film. It was indeed a smooth blade made of stainless steel and more, it had what appeared to be a monogram imprinted into the handle.

'We'll get this to the lab, get it cross-referenced with the knives in the Hammond kitchen,' Beckett said, 'though in this case finding the weapon at the scene of the crime isn't going to do much to say it was the heat of the moment. The pills already mean premeditation, as does the effort to conceal the knife.'

'What I don't get is why she would go to the trouble of killing him, then hiding out for two days before trying to off herself.' Esposito scratched the back of his neck; in all his years on the force, knives still made him twitchy. He'd only been sliced once himself in nearly twenty-five years of being a cop, but even that was once too often. He deliberately stepped away, made it look like he was trying to find anything else in the room that would give away Elaine Hammond as her husband's killer. 'Was that her own remorse?'

'Before we get into that, we're going to get the hotel to cough up her room records since she checked-in and if that fucking twerp of a manager gives me any static about the privacy of his guests...'

Beckett let the thought hang unfinished with words as she cracked her knuckles like bubble-wrap, giving Esposito a chance for a much-needed laugh. 'Man, I would not want to be the teenage boy that pisses you off,' he chuckled.

'RJ is a good kid but I have a feeling he'll be like his daddy in his teenage years. That, or he'll make Jojo's life miserable being her self-appointed bodyguard so the poor girl never gets a date.'

'I think he'll surprise you.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah, in a good way, too. In the meantime, I think we need to seal this place up and go press-gang the manager.'

'Let me do it,' Beckett told him with such relish Esposito was laughing again.

'Naturally, my fearless leader.'

* * *

><p>He was going to be home on time, almost early tonight. Esposito had been terribly thankful to Beckett for that one, as they had to wait on warrants from Fuqua since she was in chambers until eight pm and nothing would be gained by waiting around since the hotel wouldn't process their request outside of normal business hours.<p>

When he made it home, it was just in time to see Trini and Leo tidying up their toys with Max while he heard the alto murmurs of his wife and oldest duaghter in the kitchen. 'Hola, family, where's everyone hiding?' he called out, and the twins and Max abandoned their tidying-up task to rush over and swamp him with hugs and kisses.

'Hi Daddy!' Trini made it over first, gave him a squeezing hug around his neck. 'You were out getting bad guys today weren't you?'

'Sort of. We had to go question someone.'

'Did you put anyone in handcuffs?' Leo asked, eyes shining with curiosity.

'I did, Leo, he wasn't behaving himself so he had to be wised up.'

'They bein' bad, Daddy?' Max added, not to be left out. 'You say 'be-have, Misser'?'

'Katie got to say that part, but I got to put the handcuffs on him.' Esposito gave his baby boy a furtive wink. 'That's the fun part.'

Max wrinkled his nose, tried to scrunch up his cheek in a wink and failed adorably. 'You a goo' de-de-tiff, Daddy.'

'Thanks. You guys finish up, then we'll have dinner soon, okay?'

All three nodded, and when they went back to putting toys away, Esposito stood up straight to walk into the kitchen and find Meredeth there with Tessi at the table finishing her math problems. He didn't say a word just yet, though Meredeth obviously knew he was home. Instead, he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

'Hello, gorgeous,' he murmured in her ear, and to his monumental relief, tonight she didn't try to pull away from him. Quiet the opposite - she turned around to face him and gave him her trademark slow, sexy smile as she laid her lips against his in a steaming welcome-home kiss.

'Hello, handsome. Hope you're hungry. We're having turkey and beans tonight with roasted sweet corn and tortilla chips.'

'And for dessert?'

'It's not Heart of Chelios but I did make peanut butter ice cream pie while Max was napping this afternoon.'

'Even better.'

Meredeth smiled at him, the weight in her heart alleviated since she'd told her husband her feelings and he hadn't dismissed her. On the contrary, he'd taken it quite seriously and wanted to make sure he knew that he loved her. Well, she always knew he loved her, that was never in question. 'Why don't you go get changed? Dinner will be ready soon.'

'In a minute.' Esposito kept his arms around her, gave her another kiss. 'Just let me hold on to you for a few more minutes.'

'Okay. Tessi, you almost done your homework, princess?'

'Almost, Mami. Two more questions to go.'

'You want a hand, Tessi-boo?' Esposito asked, and Tessi shook her head.

'It's okay Daddy, but maybe you could listen to my animals presenation for science class after dinner? The twins and Max already said they would.'

'Of course.'

'Javi, why don't you go get changed,' Meredeth suggested and she smiled at his retreating back.

'Mami,' Tessi asked, looking up from her homework. 'Did you and Daddy have a fight?'

'Why do you ask that?'

'Because he is giving you lots of extra hugs, just like when Dell and I disagree and he says I'm sorry.'

'No, not really, princess,' Meredeth replied. 'Just sometimes when you tell someone you're sad, they will go overboard trying to cheer you up.'

'Oh. Well, Daddy is a very good cheer-er upper, Mami. He'll know how to make it better.'


	18. Making Progress

When the kids had gone to bed, rather than making a beeline for sex Meredeth and Esposito stretched out in bed sharing a fat slice of the peanut butter ice-cream pie as Esposito spilled his guts to her about the details they'd learned on Elaine Hammond.

'Man, I guess you really don't know the celebrities like you think you do.'

'They're like everyone else, they let us see what they want us to see. It just...It's got me freaked out how many similarities there are between Victor and me, Mere,' he admitted, and Meredeth gripped his hand with hers.

'Javi, you are not domineering or abusive and you certainly don't treat what I do like a joke, like I'm some kind of interesting pet. The more I hear about this case, all I can see are the ways you're _not_ like Victor Hammond.'

Hearing it from his wife made Esposito want to weep. Instead he lifted their joined hands to his lips, then scooped up more pie. 'This is delicious, by the way. I don't know how you make it and I don't want the magic ruined so don't tell me.'

'See? Abusive men don't say things like that.' Meredeth licked her spoon, play-fought him for a particular bite. She knew that he would still need time to work through this until the case was closed and she hoped he talked to his friends about it too. Her phone had blown up with texts from Beckett, Lanie and Shane alike asking her if her hubby was having an easier time of things at home after talking to them. 'They also don't share pie, but you are making an exception.'

'It's good pie,' Esposito pouted with a wink, 'and there's more downstairs.'

'Oh, the jokes I could make, Detective,' Meredeth giggled, then shrieked when he dug his fingers into her ribs. 'Aiiiee! No-no-no-no-no! Stop that!'

'Okay, okay.'

'So what do you have on tap for tomorrow?'

'Hold that thought.' Esposito rolled to his back, grabbed his cell off his bed-side table, saw Beckett's name on the display. 'Katie, I am in bed with a very sexy treat, go away.'

'Ewww, I don't need to know about you and Meredeth doing the nasty, Espo. That's a Ryan-only territory.'

'Who said anything about sex?' he laughed. 'My gorgeous, loving wife made peanut butter ice cream pie.'

'Oh. Okay, now I'm actually jealous. But it will have to wait. The doctor at Stuyvesant just called me. Elaine Hammond's awake and ready to talk for a little bit.'

'Got it. I'll meet you in fifteen.'

'And, ah, if you could bring me some pie, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world,' Beckett added.

Esposito just laughed and hung up, then gave Meredeth a kiss. 'Duty calls. Elaine Hammond is awake and wants to talk to us.'

'Okay. I'll wrap up something for you two in case it's a long night.'

'You don't have to,' Esposito reminded her.

'I know. I love you, though, remember? It's part of the deal.'

'I love you too.'

Meredeth scooped up the plate with the remains of their pie and went to find something to send with her cop for her friend.

* * *

><p>'Mm-mm-mm, Espo, I swear if I was into girls, you would have some serious competition for Meredeth.'<p>

Beckett stuffed the last of one of Meredeth's cookies into her mouth, gulped down hot coffee. 'Seriously, they're just chocolate-chip and cinnamon cookies but they taste like little bites of heaven. How does she make them taste so good?'

'Meredeth believes in proper ingredients and no preservatives. Now, of course, living off her food for almost eleven years, I agree. You almost done?'

'Yep.' Beckett took another swig of coffee as Esposito found a parking spot. 'I'm good. Are you?'

'Yeah,' Esposito replied and sincerely meant it. He knew he would still be asking his friends about how they knew Meredeth wasn't his servant, but the past few days with his bride had definitely helped. 'Yeah, I'm good.'

'Good.'

They made their way inside to the desk, badged the desk nurse who nodded which told them that she'd been informed of the special concerns for Elaine Hammond. She picked up a phone to page Elaine's doctor and informed the cops he would be there momentarily. Surprisingly, Doctor Granger, the attending physician whom they'd spoken to earlier in the afternoon greeted them. He was still in his green scrubs, only now he wore a white coat over top and his face was definitely more fatigued than near lunchtime.

'Detectives,' he told them, offering a hand to both before crooking a finger and beckoning them down the hallway.

'How is she doing?'

'She's still groggy, and her throat's sore. We had to intubate her and we also had to pump her stomach. If you'd been even fifteen minutes later she wouldn't be with us now.'

'What about her memory, any signs of brain trauma?'

'So far there's no signs of any neurological injury but, as I'm sure you can appreciate we're keeping a close watch on her.'

All three climbed into the elevator, but rather than head for the ICU - Esposito remembered where it was fairly well, as this was the hospital where he'd received his treatment and stay after being shot by the Picasso Killer - they went for the psych ward where Granger directed them down a hallway.

'She was speaking to one of our intern counselors when I came to fetch you, she might still be here,' Granger told them, then turned into one of the luxurious private rooms where a very familiar face was seated and murmuring lightly to a tired-looking Elaine. 'Ah, Doctor Weaver, I thought I'd find you here. This is-'

'You don't have to introduce me to my own mother, Doctor Granger,' Alexis told him with a wry smile, standing up and flipping the tail of her French braid over her shoulder.

'Alexis, I didn't know you were in a hospital now,' Esposito commented.

'Mandatory rotation. Part of the internship at the clinic. Doctor Granger, I'll just be down the hallway with Moira and Dawson if you need me.'

'Of course, Doctor Weaver.'

As Esposito tried to determine what felt stranger - Alexis being called Doctor or Alexis being called Doctor Weaver - Beckett looked at Elaine, who was trying to sit up straighter in bed; the woman reached for the bottle of water with a straw in it and took a few slow sips.

'I always thought it was the drugs that made the people in those medical shows talk funny but it's the tubes,' she sighed.

'Yes, those pesky, life-saving tubes,' Beckett replied, pulling up the chair Alexis had vacated. 'How are you feeling, Missus Hammond.'

'Please. You saw me in my underwear after I took an overdose of pills. Call me Elaine.'

'Very well, Elaine, how are you feeling.'

'Guilty. I was hoping I would be gone by now.'

Her response had both Esposito and Beckett blinking in shock. 'Gone?' she repeated.

'Yes.' Elaine nodded. 'Victor was a popular chef, beloved across the country. Even non-chefs knew who he was. Now that I'm still here, when they find out what I did they're going to point their fingers at me and say, you took him away from us, how dare you. If I were gone too, I'd be free.'

The wistfulness with which she said it had something stirring in Beckett's chest. The woman, she realized, was utterly trapped even after using an extreme method to try and free herself. The cameras, the gossip rags, the info-tainment shows, all of them would crucify her as a cold-hearted bitch. 'Okay, Elaine.' Beckett leaned forward, crossing her legs. 'Tell me from the start.'


	19. Recounting the Sad Story

Elaine blinked at Beckett, clearly not expecting this part. 'What?'

'Tell me from the start how things happened.'

'Do you mean the start of why I decided to leave my husband or why I tried to kill myself?'

A flick of eyes to Esposito and his expression told them something crucial - Elaine didn't know Victor was dead. 'Let's start with why you wanted to leave your husband,' Beckett replied after only the tiniest of hesitations.

'I finally reached the end of my tether about six weeks ago. I had my annual physical with my doctor, who told me I was underweight and had low blood sugar, and I replied that my psychiatrist said that would happen with my medication, that my appetite would disappear. He asked me what I meant and I explained how my husband said that I needed the medication for my memory.' Elaine sighed, took another drink. 'He was appalled, he told me I was actually hurting myself with this medication and there was no reason for me to take it.'

'You confronted Victor?'

'In my way. We were having a dinner party two days later, on the Saturday and I hadn't taken my medication in two days. He was busy chopping and preparing ingredients for what we would be serving the guests, and he realized he needed three of...something, I don't even remember what, and he started to yell at me the way he always does-'

'The way he always does?' Esposito interrupted, not liking where this was going.

'Yes. He'd always speak sharply to me if I did something like send the wrong shirts to the dry cleaners or forget to put fresh towels in the guest room, things like that. It's why he told me to see the psychiatrist. He was worried that my memory was going from my old age.'

Esposito couldn't help it - his eyebrows winged up so fast they nearly slammed through the ceiling. As her partner had temporarily lost his ability to speak, Beckett picked things back up. 'He yelled at you for not doing the shopping correctly?'

'Sort of. He yelled at me for distracting him in the grocery store when we went shopping together for the ingredients the day before. I'd told him I was concerned that Jeannette looked tired, like she hadn't been sleeping well while he'd been selecting...eggplants, that what it was, it was eggplants for the ratatouille for the soup course. He slammed his knife down and ordered me out of the kitchen so he could try to salvage his meal.' Elaine let out another sigh, this one a little shakier as she relived the moment.

'I take it this isn't out of the norm?'

'No.' She shook her head, took a sip of her drink before continuing. 'I went out the alley entrance of the house, and had this moment when I realized that I hadn't taken my medication and I remembered things perfectly clearly. He'd been asking me about Jeannette, why I was worried and he'd only taken two eggplants, not three.'

'You didn't think to remind him of it?' Esposito asked and Elaine looked sincerely shocked by the notion.

'Of course not. My job is to do what he tells me, not to question him when he makes all the money, takes care of me.'

Beckett's stomach sank. Her intuition it seemed had been right; Elaine Hammond may not have had a fist in the face or been whipped with a leather belt but she was definitely the victim of abuse. 'So how do we get from being cussed out over eggplants to slipping him roofies?'

'When he was done yelling at me, I left the house, just to the little porch off the kitchen that meets the alley where we put our trash-cans. I sat on the steps and suddenly had this thought. Why should I feel guilty about something he did? Why am I being blamed for his mistake?' Elaine shook her head weakly. 'I started getting these memory rushes and all of a sudden I was so angry. So angry with him for making me feel so badly when I shouldn't have felt badly at all.'

'Okay.'

'I went back inside and he asked me if I'd taken my medication yesterday, and I told him yes, and he suggested we should talk to my doctor, consider a stronger dose. That was when I got the idea about putting something in his drink to make him sleep and give me time to get away. I started squirreling away money from the allowance he gave me into an account under the name Aurora White-'

'How did you get a false bank account set-up?' Esposito asked.

'It wasn't false. It was a friend of mine from my theatre circle. She's an investment banker and I asked her to set up an account for me in her name that I could access. She was the only one who knew how awful Victor really was to me, so she agreed with no questions asked.'

'Why did he entrust you with the money at all if he was so suspicious?'

'Because I'd always looked after the money. It was his one weakness.' Elaine gave a sad little chuckle. 'He never drank or smoked cigarettes, he never hit me or fucked other women even when they were practically throwing themselves at him. No, he had no head for math that didn't involve recipes but I was a certified CPA until I took over running the house full time almost thirty years ago.'

'So you skimmed the joint account, put money away,' Beckett prompted, and Elaine nodded.

'I managed two thousand a week without him noticing and Aurora added in her own money to the account from her other accounts so there would be no question of tax fraud.'

Beckett nodded, made notes, as did Esposito. The picture was coming clearer now, how Elaine pretended everything was just as it should be at home while secretly preparing to make a break for it. More, it was becoming obvious the beloved television chef was not the happy-go-lucky delight everyone proclaimed him to be.

'How did you meet Jed Thornton?'

'Who?'

'The young man who sold you the pills?'

'Oh, him. He came from Jeannette, and she was very nervous to tell me about him because she knows it's not legal to purchase drugs the way she does from him but she is still saving for health insurance and she needs the pills to help her sleep. She was in tears when I asked her about him because she was certain I was going to fire her and have her deported.'

'She's a legal immigrant, though,' Esposito pointed out and Elaine nodded her agreement.

'Exactly. I wasn't going to harm her or fire her, I said, I just wanted to know his contact information. She gave it to me, and I knew if I had the pills hanging around for very long, Victor would find them somehow. So I decided that this past week would be Liberation Day. I had Aurora book the hotel for me for a week, I bought the pills and an hour after the purchase I went home and lied to my husband that I'd just met Aurora for lunch. I knew she would cover for me, even detail him a receipt if he asked.'

'Would he ask?'

'Oh yes. Victor's not one to have me spend my time away from home, unless it's on an errand for him or to go to the theatre with my friends. Any time I have unaccounted for means there's a chance I will wander the streets and embarrass him.' Elaine paused, her brow creased in confusion that made the heart monitor's beeping speed up a little. 'Has he been asking about me, where I am?'

Beckett reached over, gripped her hand tightly. 'I'm very sorry to tell you this, but Victor was killed the same night you gave him the pills. He was murdered.'


	20. Admitting All Those Feelings

It was one of the hardest things Esposito had ever witness, watching Elaine crumble and began to wail in loud, hysterical sobbing over the man she just admitted she was running away from because she couldn't handle his mentally abusive nature anymore. The nurses had come in with a dose of something that would calm her.

When they stepped into the hallway, Esposito could only puff out his cheeks, blow out a breath. 'Man, she is some kind of messed up,' he commented when they were out of earshot to Elaine's room and the medical personnel.

'Right now, it's time to let this go for the night and pick it up fresh in the morning when we also have Fuqua's warrants for everything we can get from the hotel and that stupid fucking little weasel.'

Esposito chuckled as he punched the button for the elevator; when it deposited them on the first floor the car doors opened and they were confronted with what appeared to be a floral arrangement with legs. 'Man, whoever gets that is some kind of lucky,' he sighed. 'When I got shot I don't think i even got a Japanese peace lily.'

'You had Meredeth, that's treat enough,' replied the floral arrangement in a voice that had them both blinking. 'More importantly, you had her looking after you at home.'

'Sir?'

Beckett cocked her head to the side like RJ listening for the cookie-timer and felt her face split into the first genuine grin she'd had all day. 'Sir! What are you doing here?'

From the other side of the floral arrangement Deputy Chief of Detectives Roy Montgomery grinned back. 'My daughter-in-law just had a baby last night.'

'You're a granddaddy?' Esposito mirrored Beckett's enthusiasm and slapped him on the back. 'Congratulations! How are Patrick and his wife doing? How's the baby?'

'Cecilia's just great. Fourteen hours of labour and no drugs. Patrick looks a little worse for wear having to watch Cecilia go through it, but now they've got little Lucy Virginia Montgomery.'

'A girl. Oh, congratulations, sir, that's just great.' Beckett forgot for a moment he was a high-ranking police officer and threw her arms around him in a banding embrace. 'I'll be sure to bring the kids by soon.'

'Heard you two caught the Victor Hammond case. How\s it going?'

Beckett told him and Montgomery nodded in his quiet, sage way. 'Safe to say, it's an unholy mess, and not just because of the media attention.'

'Oh?'

'It got me thinking about Meredeth and me, sir,' Esposito admitted, as if Montgomery were his own father and not his former commanding officer. 'How she works from home and does a lot of the same kinds of things that Elaine did.'

'You could think of it like that, but you're forgetting one thing. Victor Hammond was a control freak, it's why they had dogs and not children. You, on the other hand, have four babies and keep your desk littered with their pictures and shots of Meredeth too.'

Montgomery shifted the floral arrangement and patted Esposito's shoulder. 'Don't worry, son, you'll feel better once the case is wrapped and you have some quality time with your lady. It's always worked that way for me and Liz,' he added with a wink as the elevator doors closed. The moment they were shut, Beckett turned to glare at her partner.

'Are you going to do that every time?'

'What?'

'That fishing for compliments thing I used to think was just for little girls but now I see is for little boys too.'

'I'm not fishing for compliments, I'm...I'm making sure I'm not being patronized,' Esposito decided. 'Friends will sometimes tell you what you want to hear versus what you need to hear, you know?'

'No, I don't know.' Beckett shook her head. 'You remember when I was pregnant with RJ, how we had that breakfast meeting and I needed sleep and Lanie was pregnant too, but instead of agreeing with me that you were all being unreasonable men she kicked my ass and told me to think of the baby too. I was so pissed at her but I also knew she was right, which was why I was pissed off in the first place.'

'That doesn't really reassure me, Beckett,' Esposito told her as they slid into the car. 'If anything, that just gives me more reason to think my friends are treating me like a child so I'll shut up and stop harping on it.'

'Why are you still harping on it? You've now had four different people tell you that your adore your wife. What more do you need?' But Beckett was fairly certain she knew what Esposito needed, or rather who he needed to hear from. The pepper was missing his salt, it seemed.

Esposito turned the engine over, turned on the radio and grinned when he heard the station had been programmed to Time-Warp Wednesday courtesy of Ryan, and as his luck would have it, his wedding song came on the radio. As Beckett knew what this meant to him, they rode in slience until the song was done; Beckett opened her mouth first. 'I know what is you need, Esposito and you'll have it soon. Meredeth's there too.'

'It's not the same as having your bro, Beckett. You know what your husband is like, he's the same way.'

'I know that too. See you in the morning.'

Esposito watched, waited as Beckett headed for the door of her building and Eduardo the doorman held it open for her. He rubbed his thumb over his wedding ring, thought about what it represented to him. He'd taken it off a grand total of three times in his life since putting it on at his wedding almost ten years before - twice at the airport when he'd set off a metal detector and once when he was making burgers before realizing it was safer on his hand than on the dish by the kitchen sink. He'd never bastardize his wedding vows to Meredeth by hurting her, not the way Victor Hammond had hurt - hell, how he'd _damaged_ Elaine, and he knew he'd feel better once he told his best friend this, got his feedback too.

He headed inside once home and wasn't surprised to find the little note from his wife on the table where he always stowed his gun out of the reach of his children

_Hey handsome, p-b pie is in the freezer, bring us up a slice when you're home. Love xx M._

Esposito had to laugh; the two kisses and initial were how they'd signed their texts to each other since they started dating. One of his had even been broadcasted on the _Late Late Show_ when he'd inadvertently texted her in the middle of her interview. And he knew that while peanut-butter ice cream pie might be tempting, he'd rather take a bite out of his Danish apple.

Kicking off his winter boots, Esposito stripped out of his coat and gloves, his polo shirt and jeans as he made his way upstairs. When he checked on his children while in his underwear, gave each of them a kiss and heard Max and Tessi sigh 'love you Daddy' in their sleep. He made his way into his bedroom and nearly groaned: it was the end of January, they were on the heels of a blizzard and Meredeth was face down, stark naked in their bed. He could see just the top edge of her hearts-chain tattoo peeking out from under the covers on her flank and Esposito finished stripping down so he slipped into bed beside her, already getting a little hard at the sight of her curvy, naked body.

Meredeth stirred, turned her head so when she opened sleep-dogged blue eyes, they focused blearily on his face. 'Javi?' she mumbled.

'Yeah, it's me, Mere.'

'Good.' She scooted closer, hooked her leg over his hip. 'I was getting tired of waiting.'


	21. Seeking a Friend's Advice IV

_Hello all! Hope you're liking this twisty, turn-y mystery so far! This chapter is a little different but it fits in with the Espo-questioning theme and we get a little more insight into the newest couple of Adam and Lindsay. Enjoy!_

* * *

><p>The following morning, refreshed after late-night sexy times with Meredeth, Esposito awoke early with a kiss for his wife and children and was at his desk nearly an hour before he was actually on-duty.<p>

He was working on his second cup of black coffee and thinking of switching to a latte when he saw Adam walk in, fit to be tied as he stomped to his desk and slammed down the travel-thermos, muttering to himself the entire time.

'Adam?' Esposito called over to him, his voice echoing in the nearly-empty space; save for Julien and another uniform, the bullpen was empty. 'Yo, Brennan!'

Adam looked up and the senior detective saw it wasn't anger on his face, it was fury combined with misery. 'Yes, Detective Esposito? Something you need help with?'

'Why are you here? Thought you and Newman were in court today.'

'We are but I wanted to just get out of the house with Lindsay. She's on early shift this morning, and I can't take one more second of being around her parents.'

'Oh, right, her folks are in town.' Rising from his chair, Esposito crossed over to him to offer a friendly ear. 'I take it things aren't going so well with the 'rents?'

'You might say that.' Adam dragged a hand over his face, looked around. 'Think we can grab a coffee?'

Esposito nodded and they headed for the break-room where Esposito brewed up a latte while Adam poured his own black decaf into a mug from his thermos. He sat down across from the young man and nudged the cream towards him. 'What's going on?'

'I don't know what you know about Lindsay's life pre-Alexis, but she's from Seattle where her father's a conservative Baptist minister.'

'Oh boy.'

'He called her a devil-worshiper because she went to university to study medicine. Achan, that's her father, said she was no longer welcome at the church if she was going to blaspheme by believing the godless heathens that pills could control procreation and cure disease, and that if she were truly pure of spirit the Lord would bless her with the true gifts women should love - a husband to care for and many children to raise as followers of Jesus.'

Esposito sipped his coffee, let Adam get it out. 'I take it they aren't big fans of you two living together before marriage, then?'

'Ha!' Adam barked out the laugh. 'I wish it were that simple. When Lindsay was attacked two years ago, her father blamed her.'

'He did what?'

'He blamed her, he told her she must have done something to tempt this boy to make his reaction so strong.' Adam's pleasant voice hardened to steel. 'We can't even sleep together while they're in town. I'm actually living on the sofa while they're maxing Lindsay out and what makes it even worse is our outlet for stress these days is good, sweaty, mind-clearing sex.'

'It's a good one,' Esposito agreed with a grin. 'Wait until she's about fourteen weeks pregnant. You'll be walking sideways because she'll use all your up-and-down.'

'That's a good one,' Adam chuckled, dragged his hand over his head. 'Anyways, that's all prelude to what happened last night. Lindsay's been working long hours and still doing so much learning, working in the ER under one of the trauma surgeons, and you know there's some days when you see a case that just gets to you more than others.'

'For sure.'

'Lindsay had one like that yesterday, and she texted me when she was on her way home that she was ready for a stiff drink and hot sex but it would have to since her parents were visiting. I was in the kitchen, offering to help her mother Mara getting dinner ready but she brushed it off saying it's what she does. I went over to watch a repeat of this week's Saints-Giants game on TV while Mara worked.'

Adam paused, took a bracing slurp of coffee as he fought off the temper rising in his chest. 'Lindsay made it home and she looked just shipwrecked. I could tell she'd been crying to get it out and I asked her if she wanted a nice hot bath since she was clearly exhausted but her father shook his head and told her, you have a job to do Lindsay and why was she so upset over people who weren't her family, there was no need to carry on so childishly.'

'I don't like where this is going,' Esposito murmured, 'not one bit.'

'I asked Achan what he meant, and Lindsay said to him, Daddy I've been on my feet for sixteen hours I need to rest, and he just sniffed and told her good girls listen to their fathers and wives take care of their husbands, that she better practice for when she and I are married. Lindsay started to weep again and her mother came over, gave her a hug so I am thinking, great Mara will say something, but instead of leading her off to bed she guides her to the kitchen counter and says, here, sweetie, you start on the vegetables, I'll finish tenderizing the meat.'

'Her parents made her cook you dinner after you-'

Esposito was cut off when Adam held up his hand, signaling he wasn't finished yet. 'I told Achan I could help with dinner but he just glared at me and said, absolutely not, women take care of men, that's their job and if Lindsay wants to have any hope of being a decent wife and mother she better learn her family should be her priority, not embarrassing herself by having a career outside the house.'

'That's disgusting,' Esposito spluttered, unable to comprehend that Adam wasn't just making up some ghastly soap opera. He knew there were people who were like that in the world, people who believed they were righteous in telling everyone else how bad they were while seeing no flaws within themselves.

'So after Lindsay and Mara clean up, I think maybe she can relax now but no. Mara tells Lindsay to start on the laundry and I can tell Lindsay's ready to collapse, and all her father does is sneer she has work to do, nevermind that she's been awake for nearly twenty-four hours.'

'I hope you put your foot down.'

'I played along, saying Lindsay's my fiancee and will listen to me, so I say, go to our bedroom and wait for me. Achan doesn't even wait for her to leave before telling me I will have my hands full with such a willful woman but like all women, she'll bend under her husband's hand once he breaks her in.'

'Jesus. No wonder you wanted to get away from the house,' Esposito breathed incredulously, then got his next shock of the morning with what Adam said next.

'I closed us in our room and she just fell apart, sobbing into her pillow, so I told her we won't be like her parents, we'll be like Javi and Mere.'

'Like me and Mere?'

Adam nodded. 'Achan and Mara, even Victor and Elaine, that's not a marriage, that's master and slave. You and Mere, you love each other and you're partners in thick and thin. You kick each other's asses, then get all gooey when you make up. That's the kind of marriage I want for me and Lindsay.'

That his marriage was something a young friend and colleague wanted to aspire to when he himself was having such doubts told Esposito that Beckett was absolutely right - he needed to knock off the self-pity. 'Well, having a fiancee you like as a friend as much as you love them as a spouse helps. Maybe Lindsay should give Meredeth a shout soon, when's her next day off?'

'Saturday. I already got her a spa package at Midtown Retreat. Total chick-works.'

'Any chance she might like to make it a girl's day with Mere?'


	22. Confirming the Details

'Espo!'

'Yo!'

Beckett saw her partner stick his head out of the break-room, saw he was in talking to Adam and nodded. 'Bring him with you, we'll need an extra set of hands.'

Esposito nodded, told Adam to bring his latte with him; when they appeared before her, Beckett hand each of them stacks of papers. 'We got the hotel records. As this was where Elaine was living for four days there is a lot to go through.'

'Why? I thought she was hiding,' Adam commented as he thumbed through the half-inch stack of paper.

'She was, under the name of a trusted friend. You are going to take the friend this morning, Espo,' Beckett told him. 'I have a hunch I want to follow on the knife.'

'Okay.'

Adam and Esposito disappeared into a conference room, bitching about killing trees when nearly everything was paperless these days. It made Beckett happy to hear their squawking just like the noises of her children teasing each other. Once at her desk she sat down, called up Roman Moore; he answered on the fourth ring.

'Hello?'

'Hi Roman, it's Detective Beckett calling.'

'Hey pretty lady! Why you nagging me so early in the morning?'

'Not nagging, just thanking you. Your tip about the Ken doll panned out. I wanted to know what sites you found that information about the rumours on Victor and Bobby.'

She'd already asked Lanie about the gossip sites, but she sincerely doubted Roman and Lanie looked at the same websites for their celebrity news. On top of which, Beckett also wanted to make sure Roman knew she didn't just want him for his criminal savvy.

'Oh, girl,' Roman scoffed. 'That nonsense ain't worth your time.'

'Maybe but I want to make sure I'm not discounting a valid line of investigation.'

'Alright, but it's your head to smash against the brick wall.' Roman gave her the websites which she typed into the note-pad application on her computer. 'That help you out?'

'I think it will.'

'Will I get to give you another medal if it pans out?'

'Maybe,' Beckett laughed. 'Thanks Roman.'

'Anytime, Detective.'

Beckett hung up, and because she knew The Cheese Whiz wouldn't be in his lab just yet she used the time to look up the information on Victor and Bobby. It ranged from the absurd - she was sincerely doubtful either man were frequenters of the underground cross-dressing competition known as the Tranny Olympics - to the potentially true; the one that rang truest was the fact Bobby was often seen out on the town with Victor at professional events where most people would have assumed they would have brought dates instead of being each other's plus-ones.

As soon as the clock hit nine she dialed Riley Fontina at the lab and was pleasantly surprised when he answered with a sunny, 'Cheese Whiz what's your beef?'

_Morning sex with Andrews_, she decided, thinking of the cutie-pie DNA specialist who in her off-time was Riley's fiancee. 'Morning Riley it's Beckett.'

'Hey, Beckett, you were first on my hit-list this morning. Come on down in like twenty, I'll have a copy of the hotel footage for you.'

'How is that possible?'

'Came in just before end of shift last night and I stayed late to work on it.'

Curious, as Riley rarely liked to work late if he was already on the swing shift, Beckett shifted in her seat. 'You working late with Andrews waiting at home, Riley? That's unusual.'

'I won her over with my culinary skills after taking one of Victor Hammond's Chef Academy courses. Now go away. Must fuel up before takeoff into the great world of electronic data.'

Beckett hung up and muttered, 'Definitely morning sex.'

* * *

><p>With her men still occupied - or man, rather, as Adam had to leave with Newman for court just before eight-thirty - Beckett made her way down to the CSU labs housed in the Twelfth Precinct. While they weren't the only ones the lab looked after, it was decidedly convenient that they had picked this building as their home base.<p>

She walked into the lab with the badge for the receptionist who nodded and told her Riley was at his work station; Beckett made her way there where she found the man with a cup of coffee at his elbow as he did a side-by side comparision of what appeared to be the same deserted hotel parking lot.

'Whatcha got there, Deep Throat?' she asked him; without missing a beat Riley pointed at the footage and replied, 'Time-sync of camera surveillance. And...bam! said the lady. See that?'

He gestured at the screen where a newspaper went swirling past, caught up in a sudden dirvish. The image on both screens was identical. 'Now what are the odds that something as insubstantial as a newspaper would blow past the camera two nights in a row on the exact same path at the exact same time.'

'Doctored tapes,' Beckett mused. 'Bam is right. Haven't seen that one in a while.'

Riley nodded in agreement, then tapped a few keys to begin making the copies for the paper-footage; when it was underway, he rolled down his long work-bench table to his outbox and produced a disc for her in a coloured case with a single mini-BandAid sized sticker sealing it shut. 'Extra security measure here since we had that break-in before Christmas.'

'Understandable. Anything on her jumpy out as hinky?'

'Hinky? You pick that word up from your hubby?' he teased her.

'Watch it pal, you'll be 'hubby' to Andrews pretty damn soon.'

'May eighteen. Almost there. Susie's been making herself sick with anxiety over her dress not being ready in time. She's woken up vomiting every day for the last three days.'

'You'll be fine,' Beckett assured him, seeing the anxious yet happy light in his eyes. She bounced the disk against her palm. 'In fact she is my next stop this morning. Perhaps a little friendly support might not be so bad.'

With her business in the AV lab concluded, Beckett went down the hall-way, around the corner of the E-shaped lab to Andrews station, where she found the pretty little lab-tech down an aspirin of some sort. She was pasty, no question, but when she saw her unconsciously rub her hand over her lower abdomen, a little shiver ran down Beckett's back as her heart fluttered happily. She knew that gesture quite well.

'Andrews?' she called out and the lab-tech turned around in mid-sip of what appeared to being foaming orange juice.

'Sorry, Detective, didn't hear you. My system has been in total overdrive lately, I can't keep anything down except juice and ginger-ale, and maybe some saltines.'

'Uh-huh. Riley mentioned the wedding jitters.'

'More like wedding-dress jitters. Every wedding has that one thing that goes wrong, right? Ours is apparently my dress.'

'It'll work out.' Beckett thought of Alexis and Shane, and how every day leading up to their wedding there seemed to be another catastrophe unfolding. 'Riley seems pretty steady about it.'

'Yeah right, but I don't think listening to me bitch about how my almost-hubby is stress-eating his way through my favourite snacks at home is why you're down here.'

'That would fall into the 'perks and extras' column, yes.'

Andrews nodded, pulled out a file as she coughed in effort to keep the pill she'd taken down. 'Here. Blood and oils taken from the knife recovered in Elaine Hammond's hotel room. Blood is Victor Hammond's and there were two sets of prints which Jackie the Genius of prints ran for me. One belongs to an Aurora White. She's in the system for her work at Merrill Lynch. The other is Elaine Hammond.'


	23. Diving Deeper Into History

'Thanks for agreeing to see me on such short notice, Miss White.'

Esposito looked around the plush office of Aurora White, wondering how many long hours of staring at bank records it had taken her to make it to the forty-fourth floor of the Merrill Lynch high-rise. Too many for his taste, he decided. He'd take his second-grade status any day of the week and twice on Sundays if that meant getting to stay on the beat and chase down criminals.

He turned to look at Aurora White, pretty and attractive in her late fifties. She'd had work done but that was to keep the skin smooth, not youthful and she was definitely in good shape from the way her suit fit snug against her narrow body. The way she crossed her shapely legs made Esposito wish he had Meredeth there to give him a perfect description of her. She had a knack for describing the look of people so vividly, that was why she was the best-selling author and he the cop.

'Your co-operation means a great deal to the department to wrap this up in a timely way,' Esposito added as he took a seat in one of the low-back leather chairs.

'Elaine is one of my closest friends. She means the world to me. There is nothing I wouldn't do for her.'

'Why don't you tell me a little about Elaine and Victor, the early years.'

'Oh, I don't know about that,' Aurora laughed musically. 'I met them when they were already Victor and Elaine Hammond, he the dashing uptown chef and she the rudder to keep him going in stormy waters.'

'How did you meet, then?'

Aurora sipped her coffee, the delicate smile never leaving her lips. 'I met Elaine about twenty-three years ago, when Victor was looking to expand his restaurant but the economy being what it was no-one was terribly keen to invest in the expansion of a dining venue where dessert and drinks alone could ring up a tab of nearly sixty dollars.'

'Sixty-' Esposito broke off, cleared his throat. He and Meredeth had just had take-out from DeHeere and dinner for two without dessert had run them nearly that much so he supposed he wasn't one to really squawk. 'So you invested in them privately?'

'Hardly, I didn't have that kind of money at the time, I was still on my way up. Had it happened about five years later, yes I would have, but what I did was arrange a low-interest loan for Victor and Elaine, and I dealt directly with Elaine since Victor had no head for finances.'

As Elaine had said something similar the night before at the hospital Esposito simply wrote down what Aurora told him and continued the interview. 'And from that business relationship, the two of you developed a friendship?'

'Yes. Elaine has always been a big theatre buff so as a thank you for my work for her husband she invited me out for a night with her theatre circle. We hit it off and have been like sisters ever since.'

'When did you start to notice things not right with Elaine and Victor?'

'How do you mean?'

'How long has it been obvious to you that Victor has been emotionally abusive to Elaine?'

'Honestly, it's been that way since I've known her, but only after he landed the television deal did it get really obvious, and even then only in private around close friends. And it was so subtly done on his part, I highly doubt even many of them saw it at all.'

'But you did,' Esposito prompted Aurora and she sighed, this time the way survivors with the voice of experience did.

'Yes. I watched my own father do the same thing to my mother for years, not just the emotional put-downs but hurting her, slapping her like she was an ill-trained house-pet until she finally took a cast-iron skillet to his head and told him to leave her be. She did four years in prison for assault and he's somewhere in Texas, I believe.'

'Four years in prison sounds like cake compared to living with an abusive spouse.'

'For her, it was,' Aurora agreed, rising now to walk to the window. 'She was paroled three weeks before my high-school graduation and she looked better than I'd ever seen in my life, if you can imagine. She didn't let prison life get to her. She used the system, getting her GED and studying, learning. She ended up becoming a librarian and volunteer crisis counselor at a battered women's shelter in Queens.'

'Let's go back to Elaine. What kinds of things would Victor do?'

'If she was dressed in something he didn't think was showy enough, he'd call her Prudence Prissy-Pants. If he thought she was showing too much, he would call her Scarlett the Harlot. He would always chose her clothes when they had a public event to attend, and he would always speak to her like a child on the phone. It was horrible to watch because she began to believe that he was truly doing what he did because he loves her. Or loved her, I guess, since he's...'

Aurora trailed off, looked at Esposito with saddened eyes. 'Sad isn't it, when love mutates like that. Are you married, Detective?'

'Yes.'

'How long?'

'Ten years in August.'

'Any children?'

Esposito nodded. 'Four. A seven-year-old, twin five-year-olds, and an almost-three-year-old.'

'You're a lucky man,' Aurora told him. 'Elaine wanted children desperately but Victor had the ol' snip-snip done before he was thirty. He told her it was for their own good, as he didn't want them and he needed her to be there for him, not looking after some pack of snot-nosed brats.'

Esposito had a flash of Meredeth standing in the break-room with him, telling him she was pregnant with Tessi and being so overcome with pride and joy that he would be a father; for the first time since pulling this case he saw Victor as an opposite to him, not a mirror image. 'Some men are just that selfish.'

'Selfish, yes. That's the perfect word for Victor Hammond.'

'When did Elaine come to you and tell you she wanted out, that she was going to leave Victor?'

'About two months ago, or so, just after Victor was entertaining the executive producers of his show at home. Elaine came to me on the Monday morning and told me that she'd had an epiphany, that she couldn't stay with him any longer and needed to escape. That was her word she used, escape.'

'So you booked the hotel for her, set up the financial end of it. What about the night of the murder?'

'I honestly don't know.'

'I find that hard to believe, Miss White,' Esposito replied bluntly, as Aurora shook her head insistently.

'I promise you, I don't know. She didn't even tell me what day it would be, just sometime this week. She didn't want to-'

Aurora was cut off when Esposito's cellphone rang. He saw it was Beckett on the Caller-ID and answered with a brisk, 'Esposito.'

'Are you still talking with Aurora White?'

'Yeah, what's up?'

'Andrews pulled three sets of DNA via blood and body oils. Victor Hammond, Elaine Hammond and your interviewee, Aurora White.'

'Got it.'

Esposito hung up his phone, returned to the office where Aurora was pouring herself a second cup of coffee. 'Care to revise your statement on your knowledge of the murder itself?'

'I'm sorry?'

'Our lab has just confirmed three sets of DNA on the murder weapon. Victor's, Elaine's and yours. So I'm asking now if you'd like to revise your statement or would you like to add lying to the police and obstruction of justice to the accessory to murder charge you're now facing?'


	24. Getting the Facts Right

Beckett stared through the observation room's one-way glass as she watched Esposito do his one-two punch on Aurora White. They'd yet to hear her cry lawyer which was weird but as the woman was much more interested in fending for herself, she was interested in hearing what Aurora had to say.

'Hey.'

Beckett looked over her shoulder, saw Adam there in his suit which surprised her. 'Hey, what are you doing here?'

'Jury barely took two hours to send back a guilty-verdict. Newman sprung me so I thought I'd come back here and see how things are going here with you guys.'

'Ah, well, we just found out the best friend of our lead suspect could also probably be a

There was a knock on the door, and at Beckett's 'come in', Andrews appeared looking green as a cucumber and trying to speak without puking her guts out. 'Andrews, you look like hell, why don't you go home?'

'Because I'm fine, I'll get over...over...' Andrews began to cough and looked around for a trash bin, which Adam procured for her moments before she lost her lunchtime cup of tea. 'I can't get sick, and I can't get Riley sick.'

'The file?'

'The file? Yes, the file.' Andrews picked up the file she'd brought in with the requested extra tests for Beckett and Esposito. 'The prints we pulled from the knife definitely be...belonged to Elaine Hammond. She's in the system for her CPA license. The partial belongs to Aurora White as well, no question th...there, but they...well...see for your...yourselves.'

'Andrews, you need to hurl again?' Adam asked her, and received a response with a disgusting little _hup_ from the lab tech before she threw up once more in the trash-can. 'Guess that's a yes.'

'Susan,' Beckett told her, using her first name to get through to her. 'Go home.'

'But I-'

'No point in arguing with her, Andrews.' Adam patted her shoulder, eased the trashcan out of her grip and put it by the door. 'I tried that once, it didn't end well at all.'

'I bet. Okay. I'll tell Riley I'm going home, by way of the pharmacy to get some antacids or something.'

'Scotch mints, Andrews, they're best...' Beckett trailed off as the sick DNA specialist left, closing the door behind her, before she added 'for morning sickness.'

Adam cocked an eyebrow. 'It's the dead of January, could be the flu.'

'Oh, no, no way to mistake that pasty look for anything else. Wonder if she'll take a preggo-test from the pharmacy too. Five bucks says tomorrow morning we'll hear all about how The Cheese Whiz's little Babybel.'

'You're on.'

They shook hands, Adam watching Esposito while Beckett looked over the file from Andrews, at what she'd tried to explain. A quick scan and she knocked on the glass to get her colleague's attention. She saw him pause the interview then come to her in the observation, a mix of glee and frustration on his face.

'Come on, Beckett, we both know she's in this up to her neck, just give me a little more time with her.'

'Oh you can have all the time in the world you need for her, Esposito,' Beckett replied, passed him the file. 'Just thought you might like an ace in your pocket.'

Esposito looked over the information and grinned. 'Yeah, this is really good. Thanks. Is Andrews feeling better?'

'She's going home for the day.'

'Good. Best thing she can do for morning sickness that strong. Meredeth always had it really bad right after lunch.'

'See?' Beckett elbowed Adam. 'Esposito's been through it three times, I've had it twice. You'll recognize it once you and Lindsay start making babies.'

'Well, we do practice a lot,' Adam teased, and Esposito patted his shoulder.

'Save it for cards tonight, bro,' he called out over his shoulder and returned to the interview room with file. He stared at Aurora White and considered her for a moment. She was neither scared nor witless, but neither was she cocky or sneering. She was just...there, he decided, trying to do the best for her friend.

'Missus White. You've amended your previous statement, yes?'

'Yes, that's correct. I took an extended lunch hour to see Elaine at home. She still had the hotel room booked but she was at home because she couldn't risk acting too suspiciously around Victor.'

'What was she doing?'

'She was in the kitchen making lunch for herself. And talking rather oddly, now that I've thought on it. She took out a knife she looked like she was going to use to slice bread, and started saying she wished she could do him in, was brave enough to off him completely, not just knock him out for a little while until she could escape. Her hand tightened on that handle and it started to scare me.' Aurora puffed out her cheeks, blew out her breath. 'I eased it out of her hand, put it back in the block and told her I would take her to lunch, to give her a little breathing space.'

'And that's the only time you touched that knife?'

'Yes, of course! I didn't see her after that, and I haven't seen her yet because her doctors won't permit visitors while she is still on suicide watch.'

Esposito nodded, took out the photo of the weapon. 'You saw the news reports, right? That Victor was found murdered in his home, correct?'

'Of course I did.' Now it was annoyance that filled Aurora's voice. 'Everyone with an Internet connection knows he was murdered in his home. What's the point of such a ridiculous question?'

He turned the photo around to show her, and got a slightly sick satisfaction as Esposito watched her pale. 'This is the murder weapon recovered from Elaine's hotel room, a room booked in your name on her behalf. There were three sets of DNA on this knife. Victor's, Elaine's and yours.'

'But how would...' She trailed off as she put the pieces together. 'No. No, no, no! No! I am not a killer.'

'You were willing to help a woman deceive her husband and leave him.'

'I was trying to help my best friend escape her abuser,' Aurora corrected him; now she was no longer a placid little bird, blinking curiously. She was a panther prowling the room, looking for prey. 'I have an airtight alibi and the security system on Elaine's house and mine will show that I was nowhere near their home after twelve-forty-five that afternoon.'

'Why so specific a time?' Esposito could feel the fingers of his bad-cop persona taking hold as he stayed seated at the table. 'Was that an agreed upon time for the two of you to make sure you had the alibi in place?'

'That's bullshit!' Aurora exploded, then reached for her purse, pulled out her tablet to find her schedule. 'Here! Twelve-pm to two-pm, lunch with Elaine. Two-fifteen, meeting with Wallace Kostner reps. Three-thirty, meeting with Gibson Pharmaceutical reps. Five-fifteen, conference call to Seattle with MacFayden International and our partners. It went long and we order in Chinese. I paid twenty-fifty-eight for almond soo gai, Cantonese noodles, spring rolls and butterflied ginger shrimp. At seven-thirty, I left the building and just barely made it to the eight-pm curtain of _The Lodger_ with Elaine and the rest of our theatre group. Afterward, I took a cab home to find my husband still awake and we enjoyed a rather energetic bout of sex before we went to sleep at just past midnight.'

She stuffed the tablet back into her purse and actually snarled at Esposito in the exact same way Meredeth did when she was completely and one-hundred percent frustrated. 'Does that sound like I had time to murder that rat bastard Victor Hammond?'


	25. Fitting in a Quickie

All things considered, Beckett thought as she made her way from her car to her home, the day was far more productive than she'd anticipated it being. They'd gotten far more out of Aurora White than she'd thought, and when she'd said all along proved to be true when they'd checked out her alibi - according to the security tapes delivered from the Hammond home security system, she'd entered around twelve-twenty the day of the murder and had left with Elaine at twelve-forty-seven, Elaine returning just before two. Further, Aurora's meetings, credit card, cab and condo-building security tapes all confirmed she was in meetings before curtain then returned home and stayed there until the next morning.

So who the hell had been sneaky or skilled enough to bypass the Hammond's security system in order to get ? And if Elaine Hammond had indeed been dropped off by the cab at the intersection of Thirty-Sixth and Fourth, where the hell had she gone?

Those were the two questions she and Esposito had to answer, Beckett decided, but not tonight. Tonight the boys were coming over with her hubby for poker night, and she had a feeling despite the good humour Esposito would still be asking for the reassurance he was a good husband.

Perhaps giving Castle a reminder heads-up would be the nice thing to do, she thought, opening the door of the loft. For now, she let it slide as she walked into the warmth and the smell of freshly baked cookies. RJ hadn't gotten to his baking on his snow day like he'd wanted so apparently he was making something today.

Smiling, she didn't say anything right away as she loved listening to her children's voices in conversation as she came home.

'No, see we have to let them cool, Jojo.'

'But they yummy now!'

'They're too hot and they're supposed to be really crunchy cookies.'

'Oh. Dip in milk?'

'Well, all cookies are good for dipping in milk,' Beckett called out and her grin widened when she saw RJ and Jojo scamper over from the kitchen and catch her on either side for a great big hug.

'Mumum! You home!' Jojo made a little 'mm-mm' noise as she rocked her mother around the knees. 'How work-a day? You cashin' mo' baddies?'

'We thought we might have the baddie who helped the killer but it turns out she couldn't have helped the killer,' Beckett replied and RJ's eyes were brightly serious.

'That's okay Mumum, that means you know for sure who _didn't_ do it, right?'

'Fo' shoo,' Jojo echoed, then looked over at her father who had removed his oven mitts and was coming over to kiss Beckett hello. 'Daddy, see? Mumum home! Now cookie time!'

'Ah, no, no spoiling your dinner, remember? We're going to Alexis' house tonight for supper while Daddy has his friends over for cards-night,' Beckett reminded her children as Jojo helped her with her mittens and RJ with her coat. 'She made Jamaican chicken for us.'

'It's not too spicy, is it? I remember what Meredeth's green chilli tasted like, that was just scary.' RJ gave a shudder, made a zombie-face. 'Why does my sweetheart like food like that?'

'I like pissy foo' too,' Jojo piped up, making Beckett blink.

'One more time, young lady?'

'Pissy! Mean way hot, like buff-ah-lo shickens,' Jojo explained, and RJ giggled.

'Jojo you are trying to say spicy but you are saying a bad word,' he told her, and led her away trying to help her pronounce it properly while Beckett just shook her head at Castle as he took her in his arms and kissed her.

'Hello Detective.'

'Hello Writer. How were the tots?'

'RJ has finished his math and Jojo helped him colour in some sheets for social studies so homework is done, and we had something small since dinner is later for everyone tonight. And now for the mid-evening dessert.'

Castle took her by the hand and pulled her towards the stairs, making Beckett splutter a little.

'Richard, we can't just go banging away because we want to, what if the kids walk in?'

They paused outside RJ's room where he was trying to decide with Jojo what things to take to play with at Alexis' house. 'RJ, Jojo?' he said. 'I need some alone time with Mumum for about twenty minutes or so, think you can handle that and not interrupt us?'

'Uh-huh, we have something to do here anyways, it's little kid stuff, very important,' RJ told them in a tone that mirrored the one Beckett used on her husband when she felt he was being a child poking into her work and not actually helping. 'Go be alone together.'

'Ah-Shay, what this one?' Jojo held up a book she'd never seen. 'We bring it?'

'Sure.'

'See?' Castle continued to pull his wife towards their bedroom, kicking the door shut with his foot. 'They are well occupied and I want some sexy times with my wife so I have a clear head for cards.'

'You know RJ will figure out what we're doing, right?'

'He's a smart kid and maybe it's better if he knows things like this early on so we can be open and frank when it comes time for the other talks he'll need in about five years time.'

'Mmm, talking about our boy going through puberty, you _do_ know how to push a girl's buttons, Richard,' Beckett teased him, then sighed pleasantly when she felt his hands go to her waist to tug up her top. 'Now that's more like it.'

'Wanna play good-cop-bad-cop?' he murmured, her shirt flying over his shoulder and his hands busy tugging down her bra straps.

'Not enough time. Tonight, after poker night and- don't say it.'

'I said nothing.'

'My ass.'

'Oh, Detective.' Castle slipped her trousers over her hips, cupped her bottom in his hands. 'Your as that has born our children is a very very sexy one I just have to have.'

The heat zipped into her body as his hand drifted up her back, around to test the weight of her breasts against his palm. He felt her stiffen against him when he flicked her already taut nipple with his thumb, grinned as he kissed her lips, her jaw, her cheek until he caught her earlobe lightly in his teeth. She gasped, fingers curling into his back before they moved like lightening to his chest and flipped open his buttoned shirt. When he was naked to the waist she went for his pants, but instead, Castle boosted his bride up in his arms and carried her to the bed, her knees bracketing his hips while he knelt before her and slowly peeled away his jeans.

'That's quite a show you're putting on, Rich,' Beckett murmured, stroking her hands over her stomach, up her ribcage to her breasts; the movement had him licking his lips in anticipation.

'I love watching you touch yourself, Kate.'

'Just like this?' She left one hand on her body, let the other slip down between her thighs, gently move back and forth. 'What about this?'

'No, no more of that or this won't even be a quickie, it'll be a blinky.' Beckett's chuckle was low and musical as she let her hand fall away, only to be replaced by his, as Castle watched her with his blue eyes so intense they were nearly black. He watched her hand thump lightly on the sheets, her eyes close halfway before they opened wide once more as he slipped his own hand between her thighs.

It was amazing to watch, the way the layers on his cop fell away until she was just his wife and he just her husband, and Castle lowered his mouth to hers. 'I love you Kate.'


	26. Seeking a Friend's Advice V

'Rich?'

'Hmm?'

'I love you too.'

Beckett lay on her side, the sheets tangle hotly beneath her body, still joined with her husband in the afterglow of their lovemaking. The dim light of the bedroom only served to make his eyes look even more intense. They were his tell, she thought, no matter how much he might say he was fine with something or feign being angry, his true emotions were in those deep blue pools.

She pecked his lips, then unhooked her leg from over his hip. 'Okay, we had our fun, now time to get ready for family and friends' night. Who will be here for poker night?'

'Just you, I hope.'

'Oh, Castle!' Beckett groaned laughingly as she retrieved her panties and socks, found comfy black pants and a warm sweater to wear to Alexis and Shane's apartment. 'That's disgusting.'

'I couldn't help myself, and besides you set me up so beautifully for it.' Castle sat up, found his boxers and his jeans. 'It'll be me, Dave, Shane, Cam and Esposito.'

'Be on guard, Esposito's been feeling really rocky this week.'

'That's what you said last night when I got home,' he recalled. 'Why, though? How is he like Victor Hammond? I met the man and even after one meeting you could tell he didn't respect his wife. Javier Esposito got snipped after four babies, no questions asked. That's a hell of a lot of respect for your wife.'

'Respecting your wife is more than getting your balls chopped.'

'Easy, Kate,' Castle winced, feeling a sympathetic twinge in his own giblets. 'That's not a nice way to talk about them.'

'You know what I mean.'

'I do, and that's a two-way street.'

'I know.' Dressed once more, Beckett stood up and gave Castle one final kiss. 'Just don't call him a girl if he gets needy tonight, okay? He is needy because he is craving the reassurance from his friends that he's a good man. We all know he really needs to hear it from Ryan to be fully okay but what you have to say won't hurt either.'

Castle nodded, followed her out the door to find that in their twenty-minute absence, RJ and Jojo were just as close to being ready to visit their sister as before their parents had indulged in some quick sex. 'RJ, Jojo, you guys ready?'

'In a minute, Daddy,' RJ replied, in a tone which told them both that RJ would be making no baby-making practice comments tonight. 'We have almost decided on our story-time books. Alexis is such a good story teller, we need to make sure we get the right ones to take to her house.'

'You know it's not a sleepover, right?' Beckett asked, and Jojo nodded vigorously.

'This-a be-fo' bedtime suh-tory, Mumum. No' fo' suh-leepy time.'

'Okay, then let's wrap it up because Daddy's friends will be here-' She was cut off when she heard the phone ring the doorman's tone, letting them know one of their guests had arrived. 'Soon.'

'I'll go see who it is,' Castle offered, heading downstairs.

'Okay. Come on, Jojo, time to put our treats in our bags.'

By the time they'd rounded up their gear and Beckett was ushering them towards the door for their coats and boots, not only had Dave arrived but Esposito as well, grinning when RJ told him he'd made something delicious called 'biscotti' just for Trini with lemons and almonds and Castle had to make sure Esposito didn't forget them when he went home that night.

'I promise, little bro,' Esposito reassured him, and they sealed the deal by feeding the birds. He stared after the boy as he chattered to his mother and sister about the story bokoks they were reading at school and looked back at Castle. 'Should I be worried he's always giving Trini sweets and pastries?'

'RJ is a lot like Meredeth, he likes to show his friends and loved ones he cares by going out of his way to make them something delicious.'

'That's a nice thing to do.' Esposito pointed to the reusable tub he'd brought with him. 'Meredeth made us calzones.'

'Sweet. Any vegetarian?'

'All vegetarian. Some are cheese, some are cheese peppers and onions.'

'You are one lucky bastard,' Dave commented, snagging a pretzel from a bowl.

Castle watched in fascination as Esposito visibly bristled, rather than take it in stride the way he usually did. Even more troubling was the fact that he didn't reply with a smile but a tightly-set jaw and he realized Beckett was not kidding - Esposito was most definitely in need of reassurance he wasn't a man who took his wife for granted.

Cracking open two beers while Dave hit the can, Castle sipped his and gave Esposito a contemplative look. 'Kate filled me in on what's been happening with you this week. Did you know I actually met Victor Hammond?'

'Really,' Esposito said numbly as he sat down at the card table and began to unpack the poker chips from their case.

'Really. And him as a husband resembles you in the same way a bicycle looks like a pomegranate.'

'Rick, come on-'

'Did you know we were already making wagers that you'd marry Meredeth the first night we met her,' Castle barreled on. 'We all knew it from the moment we saw you comforting her after she had that night terror. We'd seen you before with other girlfriends, but you that night with her, that was seeing someone take care of their soul-mate, Javier.'

'Soul-mates,' he repeated, reaching for his beer. 'We hadn't even been together a month.'

'And yet when you heard Alexis shout for me, you knew, even before you saw it, that Meredeth was in trouble. What do you think Victor Hammond would have done if his wife had been having night terrors like that?'

'I don't know.'

'Would Victor Hammond have paced the hallways frantically outside the OR waiting to hear news on his wife's emergency surgery that was saving both her life and her unborn son's?'

'No.' Esposito shook his head firmly on that one. 'No, he wouldn't have been, because he was too much of a control freak he wouldn't let her have babies.'

He thought of the night he'd taken a piss-drunk Gil Mazzara to Meredeth's townhouse - that had been just a month before they moved in together, not even - and Esposito had tucked him in on the couch, then gone upstairs to ask Meredeth if she would still love him if they couldn't have babies. He'd told her that night he'd wanted four and they'd gotten their four, he realized, only the twins hadn't been identical boys, they'd been Leo and Trini to go along with Tessi his little turtle-loving cop and Max the bespectacled professor.

'A man like Victor Hammond, had he deigned to give up any of that control in his carefully ordered world, would have wanted all boys wouldn't he?' Esposito asked quietly. 'He wouldn't love all his children for their uniqueness, he would want them to be as uniform as his Giant Schnauzers.'

'Exactly, right, bro.' Castle nodded, pursing up his lips. 'You have four beautiful children that you love for their individuality, which is particularly important since you have twins in there. What do you think when you hear Tessi's name?'

'Little mother, turtle-lover, already a cop.'

'And Leo and Trini?'

'Goofy loveable protector and little miss personality.'

'What about Max?'

'The great inquisitor, my little Carl Sagan,' Esposito laughed. 'And Meredeth is my Danish angel. What the hell I did to deserve that beautiful, exquisite creature who loves me and bore my children, I'll never figure out.'

'There you go. Now, prepare to lose your shirt.'


	27. Being There for the Family

When Esposito arrived home the big winner from poker night, he was surprised to hear his wife's voice along with Tessi's, until he heard the sound of a toilet flush and the soft, slow padding of feet. He was half-way up the stairs when he saw Tessi turn around and dart back into the bathroom, Meredeth waiting for Esposito.

'Hey,' he said, greeting her with a kiss. 'Our little princess isn't feeling so hot, huh?'

'No, she's not. I can't tell if she has the flu or if it's anxiety over not having the house ready yet for getting the dog on Sunday. She's so nervous to have a puppy in the house again, if it will remind her too much of Arturo and she'll get upset with Tortuga because she is still a baby and she knew Artie when he was a little more grown-up.'

'All valid worries.'

'Either way, I'm keeping her home for at least the morning, until she gets it out of her system and...what?' Meredeth cocked her head to the side, gave him a little laugh. 'What is it?'

'Nothing. Absolutely nothing.' Esposito pulled her in for a tight hug, kissing her so that his tongue nudged apart her lips and found hers. The movement had her squawking a little.

'Javi, as much fun as that would be, if we're bouncing on each other while Tessi is puking up internal organs, that's just plain old-fashioned selfish parenting.' Merdeth pecked his lips. 'Wake-up?'

'Wake-up.'

'Cool.'

'Mami.' Tessi appeared at the doorway of the bathroom. 'My tummy is really upset and bothering me, but I wanna go to sleep.'

'You think maybe you might like some ginger tea?'

'Uh-huh, and a story.'

'Okay, sweetie.'

'Mere, you grab the tea, I'll do the story.' Hearing RJ and Jojo talking about Alexis reading them stories that night came back to Esposito and he went over, crouched down to hug his sick little princess. 'I'm sorry you feel so crumby, baby.'

'Me too, Daddy. Can you read me a good one? Maybe one of the nice stories from the epic-book?'

Esposito had to chuckle. The 'epic book' as Tessi had come to call it, was a collection of creation-myths from various cultures around the world - Greek, Chinese, Zulu, Incan, even some Navajo and Haida stories in there too. Tessi had fallen in love with them, and they'd been making their way through the book one story at a time. 'I'm sure we can find something in there.'

'One of the Greek ones, they are the nicest. Maybe...' she trailed off, and Esposito held his breath in case she was about to hurl once more. It passed and they continued on the trail of beach towels Meredeth had made from Tessi's room to the bathroom. 'Maybe the one about why there is winter and summer. I like that one.'

'I do too, Tessi-boo,' Esposito told her gently. He waited until she'd climbed into bed, blowing a kiss to her framed photo of Arturo on her dresser and tucking her stuffed Crush into the crook of her arm, before he tucked her in, brushing her curling black hair back from her clammy brow. It felt like it was on fire. 'Baby, you're burning up.'

'No, Daddy, I'm so cold. Can you get me my quilt?'

Tessi pointed to the little quilt at the end of her bed and Esposito swallowed deeply, looking at her little face, red and flushed yet her lips were cracked and dried. 'Sweetie, when was the last time you had a drink?'

'I'unno. Daddy, my blankie?'

'In a moment sweetie.'

He left his daughter's room and headed for his own to see Meredeth back in leggings and a sweater, on the phone. 'Telehealth?' he mouthed and Meredeth nodded, then thanked the nurse on the other end of the line before hanging up. 'She says we should probably take Tessi to the hospital to get her checked out since she is sweating and can't even keep water down.'

'Okay. What about the Three Musketeers?'

'I...I don't know who to call.' A little panicked, Meredeth looked at him. 'Who should we call? Everyone works, they all have jobs to go to in the morning.'

'Hey, hey.' Esposito could see where her train of though was heading and immediately had her switch tracks. 'There have been plenty of times when we've woken up for our friends. You know they won't hold this against you.'

'I know. I'll try Lanie and Dave first, since they're the closest to us.' She punched in the number and was just about to hang up when a surprisingly alert Lanie answered the phone. 'Lanie?'

'Meredeth, what's wrong? Are you okay?'

'I- no. We need to take Tessi to the hospital, her fever hasn't broken yet and she's not able to keep fluids down, so-'

'Of course, Mere. I'm going to come over and watch the kids, Dave's with our brood here. Are you guys okay?'

'Yeah, we just want to get Tessi taken care of.'

'I'll be there in fifteen minutes.'

'Lanie's on her way over,' Meredeth said, then sighed. 'God, I'm so awful, Javi, I should have seen that Tessi was worse than she was instead of worrying about whether you and I have enough time together.'

'Meredeth, worrying about our relationship doesn't mean you overlooked Tessi's health.' Esposito took her face in his hands. 'You are a great mother, and I'm an awesome father, and we're going to take care of our little girl.'

'Right, of course we will.'

'Mama? Daddy?'

They looked over and saw Max standing in the doorway, knuckling at his eyes. 'Hey, Max Power, what's wrong buddy?'

'Hear funny noises. Someone being sick-a tummy?'

'Yeah, Tessi's sick to her tummy, and we have to take her to see the doctor so Auntie Lanie is coming over to stay with you and your brother and sister.'

'I say it okay Tessi, no be suh-cared?'

'In a moment,' Esposito told him as he saw Tessi dart past and slam the door shut before the sound of throwing up had them both wincing. 'I think you better tell her in the morning, buddy.'

'O-kay.' Max looked over at his mother. 'Tessi be fine, Mami.'

Meredeth kissed the top of Max's head, sent him on his way before turning her doleful eyes to her husband. 'Javi, I don't know what I'd do without you. I love you so much.'

'I love you too.'

'Mami?'

Tessi's voice was plaintive from the bathroom and when Meredeth went to check on her, Esposito thought of Victor Hammond once more, only this time, his thoughts drifted to the dogs and Jeannette. The dogs would only listen to her, she'd said, which made him wonder if they listened or obeyed either Victor or Elaine. He also thought it fortunate that there was no next of kin other than Elaine because there was no one in the world he could picture less as a father than Victor Hammond. Hell, even Charlie Sheen had a pack of kids and he was as crazy as it was possible to get some-days.

Here he was, a married man and father of four, assuring the youngest that the oldest would be fine after seeing the doctor while the middle two babies slept like angels. He heard Meredeth's voice soothing the distraught Tessi and once again wondered what special wind blew her into his life.

Rising from his spot on the foot of the bed when the doorbell rang, Esposito thought of how he'd arranged the spa day for Meredeth to go with Lindsay, thought of something else she would appreciate in addition to the other surprise he had planned for her on Saturday night.


	28. Puzzling out the Pieces

When Beckett picked Esposito up the next morning, she took one look at him when he opened the door and whistled. 'Damn, Espo, what the hell happened to you last night?'

'Tessi had to go to the hospital.'

'Oh, my god, Javi, I'm so sorry, is she okay?' All joking gone, Beckett looked at him with worried eyes.

'Yeah, it's influenza. She'll be fine, they've got her on IV's to get some fluids and medicine into her.'

'Are you okay, do you need the day to be with your family?'

Esposito shook his head. 'Tessi said she wanted me to have something to do today other than worry about her when she just needed a really big drink of water.'

'That sounds like her alright. What about the other kid and Meredeth?'

'Meredeth's still there with her. I came home to get Leo and Trini ready for school, and we need to take Max over to Meredeth and Tessi at Saint Vincent's.' He turned, saw his twins were in their school uniforms and ready to go with Leo crouching down to make sure that Max' snowboots were done up tightly. 'You guys ready, our ride's here.'

'Yes Daddy,' the trio of youngster chorused back, Trini adding, 'I have the note you told me to give Miss Guererri for Tessi's homework and we'll meet Rosie and Miss Agnes after school.'

'Daddy, Tessi be okay?' Max asked, his dark blue eyes shining with worry behind his glasses. 'Doc'ors make big sisser okay?'

'They sure are, Max.' Knowing he could use a motherly touch, Beckett held out her hand to Max, which he gladly took. 'They know what to give her to make her tummy settle down and get her back to being herself. You want a hug?'

Max nodded, and Beckett obliged him, grinning when he asked, 'Katie, you have 'larms?'

'Do I have alarms?'

'He means sirens,' Leo explained, putting his backpack on his shoulder. 'He calls them alarms.'

'Oh, no, Max, we don't need sirens today,' Beckett told him as the group left the house, just as the bus rounded the corner and the twins gave their father and brother a kiss before racing off to catch their ride to school. Beckett opened the door for Max behind the driver's side. 'But we'll get you to your mami and then Daddy and I have to go to work.'

'Okay, Katie.'

Max plunked himself in the booster seat Esposito had put in for him, buckled in and neatly folded his little mitten-covered hands in his lap. 'Ready! Daddy, sea'belt!'

'Yeah, Espo,' Beckett teased him as Esposito sat in the passenger seat. 'Seatbelts.'

'Safe'y firs.'

* * *

><p>They dropped Max off with Meredeth with promises they'd check in at ten-am provided they weren't in the middle of interrogation, and Esposito knew she would be okay when Max made the comment that Tessi was 'noring way loud, Mami'; Tessi never snored if she was sick so hearing her sound like a little chainsaw was a boost in the right direction.<p>

'I'll need to get her a little present, maybe get one of the guys to deliver it since we're going to be busy all day with Elaine Hammond.'

'That's so sweet.'

'It's what a good father does, and a good husband.'

While Esposito dialed Castle up, Beckett played over the day's agenda in her brain - they had to go over the security discs from the Hammond household with a fine tooth comb and figure out just how the killer got in and out without raising any alarm. Adam and Newman would be back in the bullpen today having wrapped their case in court the day before and Beckett had a feeling that she would be getting five bucks out of Adam when she walked into the room.

'My princess is getting the _Walk on the Wild Side_ sea-life series which includes an episode dedicated to Galapagos turtles, Meredeth is getting Yellow Basket's lunchtime snack-pack, and Max is getting some new crayons.'

'Excellent. Now to business. We know Elaine Hammond was in that cab, the cross-reference on the cell-records and the cab-company confirmed it, so how would she get into the house without being seen by Victor or sensed by the dogs?'

Esposito mulled it over, closed his eyes. 'She used the back entrance to the house. They use the alley off the kitchen to take out the garbage so it's not on the sidewalk out front. Is that wired?'

'We'll find out at the precinct.'

'Beckett, are we saying that Elaine Hammond, who could no more have plotted and planned a murder like this than fly to the moon, did in fact kill her husband in cold blood?'

'You heard Aurora White yesterday, whoever it was didn't kill her husband, he executed her abuser. Elaine stopped taking the pills Victor told her to take and had the self-awareness to start squirreling away money to use after she left Victor.'

'Where's her get away plan.'

'What?'

'Where's her getaway plan?' Beckett repeated as she pulled into the precinct parking structure. 'I worked as a volunteer for the women's shelter on Madison and Fifty-Third and the number one thing we would teach women who would come in there was to have a getaway plan. The safe house or hotel, that's just a layover. What's the plan for the next week, the next month?'

'Oh, okay. Maybe she hadn't had one in place yet, maybe she was going to stay with Aurora and her hubby.'

'I don't think so.' Beckett shook her head. 'I think she never intended to go away.'

'Whoa, whoa.' Esposito stopped in his tracks, eyes going round as he made the leaps Beckett already had. 'You think she did it, and she wants to get caught?'

'Yes, I do. For both questions.'

'Why would she do that?'

'Ever heard the phrase 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', Espo?'

'I once attempted to make Trini's bed for her. She pitched a shit-fit like you would not believe, so yes I am familiar with how that works.'

'Let's say we had a woman who'd been consistently emotionally abused by her husband and she finally can't take it anymore, and makes a plan to get away. She comes home to check he's out for the count and suddenly she thinks about everything he's done to her and realizes that escape isn't enough, she wants to see him suffer the way she has suffered.'

'She'd want payback.'

Beckett tapped the tip of her nose with her index finger as they rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. 'Bingo.'

'So she goes home to make sure he, being a creature of habit, had drunk the smoothie she'd made for him earlier in the day and then see him passed out in the kitchen and in a fit of rage takes the knife and stabs him with it until...what? What makes her stop?'

'Fatigue, possibly.'

'Okay, so assuming that's true, there'd be a void for splatter, there'd be her clothes to worry about, right?' Esposito said, thinking about it from a forensic point of view.

'All good questions. CSU is still going through the clothes from the hotel but...shit. Shit, shit, shit! Garbage day.'

'You forget to put your bins out?'

'No.' Beckett shook her head, stomped off the elevator to find Adam and Newman at Newman's desk. 'Newman, I need you and your boy back at the Hammond crime scene to do me a favour. It'll take maybe ninety-minutes tops if I'm right.'

'Sure thing, Beckett. Oh, and here.' Adam took a neatly folded five-dollar bill from his pocket. 'I believe we had a little wager.'


	29. Working an Angle

They sat at their desks going over and over details of the security company's printouts - the discs were with the daddy-to-be Cheese Whiz; Beckett had indeed called it right - and so far, they were not terribly helpful.

'There's got to be something in here to tell us how she got in,' Esposito sighed, tossing down his reading glasses and grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes. 'You have anything yet?'

'No.' Beckett, who'd needed a break on the records before Esposito did, stared at her murder board, looking at the crime scene photographs. She picked up a red whiteboard marker and wrote underneath a photo _bloodtrail out_ before capping the marker and mumbling to herself. 'She doesn't have wings or a hoverboard and even if she were airborne, there would still be drops of castoff blood, just from a higher altitude.'

'Talking to yourself, Detective?'

Beckett glanced over, saw Karpowski walking towards her with a file in her hand. 'Sir, just thinking aloud. There's no apparent bloodtrail out of the house,' she explained. 'We're going on the theory that Elaine Hammond was dropped off at the corner intersection near her house and then used the back-alley entrance through the kitchen to make sure she didn't get caught on camera during the window for the time of death.'

'That's what I'd do, if I wanted to get back at my husband for being an asshole,' Karpowski said so easily Beckett had to check her mouth; Karpowski was infamous for her disdain of foul language. 'I wouldn't be comfortable with the what-ifs of the plan as described by Aurora White. I'd need to see it in person.'

'We figured that too, so that's the angle we're trying to work out now. Hold on, sir.'

Beckett went to her ringing desk-phone, pressed the speaker button. 'Beckett.'

'It's Adam, and we're at the Hammond house, in the back alley. You were right, the trashcans labeled Hammond are empty but there is a red smear on one of them near the lip of the can.'

'Good. Photograph it, get it to CSU. Andrews is home for the day so send it to her underling Jackie.'

'What are you thinking, Beckett?'

'I'll tell you when you're back here.'

She hung up, looked at Esposito and Karpowski. 'You get what I'm thinking?'

'That Elaine ditched her bloody clothes into the trashcan the night of the murder and they are currently rotting in a Newark landfill because we got there after pick-up on Monday morning? Yeah, that's pretty obvious where you're going.'

'What if...what if Elaine strips down out of her fancy theatre clothes so she's in her underwear, stabs him, then puts on fresh clothes outside the house and tosses the bloody ones in the trashcan?' Beckett pondered, tapping the marker against the board.

'Keep me posted, Detectives,' Karpowski informed them as she moved along to Geoffs' desk to deposit the file in her hands.

'What do you think, Javi,' Beckett asked him.

'I think that in the right circumstances anyone can be pushed to the point of being a secret agent and have the awareness to leave as little as possible of themselves at a crime-scene. Would she remember the interior cameras though?'

'No interior cameras, just exterior on the front of the house. But...' BA thought sparked in Beckett's mind and she went back to the stack of hotel records, smirking triumphantly when she saw the I'll call Riley, see if he's up for a visit.'

* * *

><p>They found Riley in his AV lab, though how he was on the ground and not on the ceiling floating away from the pure love and happiness in his eyes was a wonder that Andrews was indeed pregnant.<p>

'Can you believe it?' he all but sang as he offered Esposito and Beckett chairs for viewing, something he'd never have done in other circumstances. 'We went to the clinic last night, and the ultrasound-sono-thingy said she's about nine weeks into it, which means we probably made the baby celebrating the Steelers win against Green Bay on Thanksgiving.'

'Congratulations, Riley,' Beckett told him warmly, 'if you need any advice, between Ryan, Espo and myself, we have eight kids so we've been there.'

'She's being looked after by a Doctor Bishop, you know him, is he any good?'

'Henry Bishop?' At Riley's nod, Esposito gave him a wink. 'He is a colleague of the OBGYN Ryan's wife works with, and our friends Andrea and Daniel too. He did an emergency at-home birth last summer for us too, for a friend of Alexis Weaver's. He's one of the best.'

'Good, good, because we didn't plan this and we're terrified but we are so excited.'

'How about a little cross-referencing of video footage to keep you centred?' Beckett teased him and Riley bobbed his head like a robin drunk on worms.

'You got it, Detective. Voila.'

He pressed a button on his keyboard, brought up the traffic-cam footage. 'That is the footage you looked at previously. And this-' he pressed another key '-is Elaine Hammond coming into the hotel at approximately twelve-fifty am the night of the murder.'

Esposito squinted. 'You sure? It doesn't even look like her.'

'Yeah, she's wearing a wig. But if we do this, then we'll get undeniable proof.'

Riley pulled up two still frames from the footage, enhanced and clarified once more, focusing on the feet; the leather ankle-boots were identical. 'Those shoes are custom-tailored Dante Brunetti boots. The standard off-the-rack ones run about four-hundred a pop. Custom job like those are anywhere from fifteen hundreed to four thousand dollars.'

'For shoes? Women are crazy,' Esposito blurted out and Riley chuckled.

'You're telling me. Susie's already getting antsy she'll have to return the pumps she got for the wedding in favour of wedges or flats.'

'Is there any way to get a further confirmation on the shoes, Riley?' Beckett asked, not will to admit that she'd received a pair from Castle for their sixth anniversary in the same hibiscus pink as her wedding dress.

'Oh yeah. Custom jobs like that are very rare and very expensive. I checked it against any purchases from Elaine Hammond or Victor Hammond's credit cards. Victor Hammond spent seventy-five hundred dollars on those very shoes for his wife at Christmas.'

Esposito moved closer to the screen, then looked back at Beckett. 'If she wore those boots into the house and wore them out, there is still probably spatter on them.'

'One step ahead of you, Detective,' Riley informed them. 'Her clothes from the hotel room are all over with fibres and DNA. They should have a report to you by lunchtime.'

His phone rang and when he the normally surly AV-tech went soft and gooey as a melted Mars bar, Beckett and Esposito both knew he was talking to Andrews. Deciding to give him some privacy, they stepped into the hallway to wait for the remainder of his report.

'You know what is still really confusing me, Kate?' Esposito murmured to his partner.

'What's that?'

'We seem to be getting like three different pictures of Elaine. There's Elaine the happy wife, Elaine the abused wife and Elaine the criminal mastermind. And none of them seem to fit with the lady we met in the hospital, nor do any of them seem like the type to OD on sleeping pills.'

'Yeah, I get what you mean, but I have a feeling that it is going to make sense soon.'

'You know something?'

'No, no more than you, but my instincts are telling me it's somehow going to make sense.'

Riley came to the door of his lab and passed them a stack of sticker-sealed discs along with a printed report. 'It's all there,' he hissed. 'You have any questions, come find me.'


	30. Tracking Down a Liar

They took the security discs back to the Homicide bullpen and copped a conference room with a viewing board for reviewing Riley's footage. As they looked, they saw exactly what they thought they were going to see - Elaine Hammond getting out of the cab, and Elaine Hammond walking into the hotel, wearing the same boots. Added to this, they had the information from the security company who said that the house codes had been set on the whole house at eleven on the nose - probably a timer - but the back-door had been unlocked at eleven-twelve and closed again at eleven-thirty-three.

'Twenty minutes to do murder?' Esposito shook his head. 'That's not just revenge, Kate, that's almost sociopathic.'

'You're right. Pull up the info on her arrival at the hotel.'

Esposito obliged her and Beckett stared hard at it, watching as Elaine Hammond walked into the hotel. There was something about it that just felt off to her, that felt so wrong about this idea that someone as cowed as this woman purported to be could be coherent and sane enough to pull off a near-perfect murder by painting herself as much a victim as Victor had been.

So why the nagging feeling.

She watched, then blinked, slapped Esposito's shoulder. 'Stop! Right there! What is that?'

'What's what?'

'That.'

Beckett stood up from where she'd been sitting on the table and stared at the screen. She pointed to the figure by a potted ficus, half-obscured. She squinted and felt her jaw drop. 'Who is that?'

'I can't tell from this angle. It can't be Elaine Hammond because there she is arriving at the hotel.' Esposito pointed to the woman walking through the front door.

'Pull up the footage from the other angle that Riley gave us, going from the guest rooms towards the lobby.'

Esposito found the file, pulled it up and they watched in slightly numb shock as they saw a figure enter Elaine Hammond's hotel room shortly before eleven pm, then at eleven thirty-five, she emerged and went down the hallway, hovering as though she were a Keystone Cops spy by the ficus. She watched and then at eleven thirty-seven she walked down the hallway with Elaine Hammond, and they walked together into Elaine Hammond's room. At eleven-forty-one, the spying woman emerged from the hotel room.

It was Aurora White.

'That bitch,' Esposito breathed. 'You don't think maybe she tried to set up her best friend, do you?'

'I don't know what to think.'

Why did CSU find no trace of her in the hotel room?'

'Because we were there after housekeeping with all their tricks and things used to freshen up the room,' Beckett sighed impatiently. 'Any DNA or prints would have been destroyed before we even talked to Jed.'

'So what does that leave us with?'

'Talking to Fuqua to get warrants on Aurora White's records and her building surveillance to find out what time she came home to bang her hubby. Can you compile those clips into a single disc or file or something?'

'Usually that's Ryan's area of expertise but I've got something here I can do.'

While Esposito worked his magic, Beckett got on the phone to Judge Michelle Fuqua. 'Good morning, Your Honour,' she said as politely as she could, though her temper was seething over how Elaine and Aurora had played them both. 'I'm going to bring by a disc to your chambers and I need you to look it over, tell me if you think it's enough for a warrant. Yes, ma'am I know that's usually something for the ADA but these are special circumstances. To Link, is he free? Good, okay, yes. Thank you, ma'am.'

'Fuqua said no?'

'Fuqua said she's in chambers with other meetings until three and then she might have time for us, but send it to Ian Link first and he'll make sure we'll get a warrant for that lying bitch.'

Esposito arched an eyebrow. Beckett rarely let her temper get the better of her but given the circumstances of the case, he knew she'd be hard-pressed to not be pissed off. 'Then we'll drop it at his office and scare up some lunch on the way.'

* * *

><p>'Hello?'<p>

'Hey, Mere, how's our princess doing?'

'Much better she's actually held down some water and some juice and is asking for lunch.'

Esposito closed his eyes as he smiled in relief; his check-in with Mere and his daughter was rapidly turning into the highlight of a very frustrating work day. He shifted his cellphone against his ear as he waited in line with Beckett at Gennaro's to order lunch, thought of Tessi sitting up and demanding soup. 'That's great, has the doctor said anything about when she'll be sprung?'

'He'll be running some blood tests this afternoon and seeing if she can keep down some semi-solid food. She might be here until tomorrow.'

'Okay, well, the doctors know what's best right?'

'Yes, I- what? Oh, okay. Hold on, Javi, your princess wants a word.'

There was the sound of the receiver being handed over and Tessi's voice, far more alert than she'd been in the last week, greeted him. 'Hi, Daddy!'

'Hey princess,' Esposito smiled. 'How are you feeling?'

'Much better, I think I will get to go home tonight!'

'Keep thinking happy thoughts, it will make you stay feeling better.'

'Mami and Max are great company,' Tessi added, 'so you keep catching those bad guys, okay Daddy? I will see you soon at home tonight.'

'Okay, I'll keep catching the bad guys. I love you, Tessi-boo.'

'Love you too, Daddy. Here's Mami!'

Tessi handed the phone back over and Meredeth gave a little sigh. 'She's determined to be home, isn't she?'

'I would be too.' Esposito pointed to Beckett, letting her go first. 'I'll call in a little while, okay? It's lunchtime for me and we are going to see Fuqua afterward.'

'Sounds good.'

'I love you Mere.'

'I love you too, Javi.'

Esposito hung up, then stepped up to order the smoked beef on weck with coleslaw, then looked at Beckett who was hanging up her cellphone. 'You sure Castle's going to be up for helping me out on Saturday?'

'Oh, yeah. He's good at that kind of thing, and I know RJ and Jojo are eager to see the twins and Max.' Beckett knew how much her partner had on his plate personally this week and was more than willing to oblige him. 'Ian Link called he's at Fuqua's chambers, ready and waiting for us.'

'Then we'll dine and dash.'

They took their sandwiches to go, snacking on the short walk from Gennaro's to the courthouse where they indeed found Fuqua and Ian drinking coffee in her chambers. The moment they walked in, Ian was on his feet, handing over the paper for their warrant.

'You've got the paper but no official charges without me there, because if and when this goes to trial, it is going to be messy as hell on our side to begin with, without even factoring in the media circus this is going to cause.'

'There's already been reports that say Elaine Hammond faked the whole thing and is a sadistic sociopath who wanted her husband's money,' Fuqua added. 'I don't want this to become another Amber van Houston, Detectives. That was difficult enough when the media vultures sank their teeth in.'

'I'm aware of that Your Honour,' Beckett replied, 'which is why I want to get this done as quickly and quietly as possible so the hype over Victor Hammond being murdered by one of his own knives is not overblown by the fact that we got his killer and she has been put behind bars.'


	31. Fleshing Out a Theory

When they walked into Merrill Lynch, Beckett was almost thankful the receptionist looked young and dumb. She needed an emotional punching bag and unfortunately this poor sot had drawn that short straw today.

'Good afternoon, how can I direct you?'

Beckett held up her badge to the receptionist too perky and uninformed for her own good. 'Aurora White, where is she?'

'She's on a conference call, can I tell her who would like to see her?'

'Where is this conference call taking place?' Beckett inquired.

'Level Three, Conference Room 3A, but...oh, you can't interrupt them! They've been trying to close this deal since the beginning of the week!'

The receptionist was just a fraction of a second too slow so instead of throwing herself in front of the elevators, she was dogging their heels. 'You can't just go in! You need clearance!'

'See this?' Esposito turned on her now, held up the paper copy of the warrant. 'This is an arrest warrant. You'll be getting one too for obstructing officers in their sworn duty if you don't escort us up to Conference Room 3A.'

The receptionist went pale as her Lane Bryant blouse and whipped out her key card to access the elevators. When they stepped out she had to practically run to stay ahead of them and open the conference room door herself where about ten men and women sat clustered at the end of a boardroom table.

'Mindy!' A portly man with silver-and-onyx hair barked out her name. 'What in God's name is this all about?'

'Sir, I-'

'Detective Kate Beckett, Detective Javier Esposito, we're here to speak with one of your partners.' Beckett held up her badge in her hand, stared down Aurora White who had gone stock still. 'Aurora we can do this in one of two ways, the civilized or the noisy way.'

Aurora simply closed her folders on the table, took her purse and rose from her spot. 'I'll go quietly and without violence, Detectives. I only ask that I be spared the indignity of handcuffs until we reach your vehicle.'

As the woman had complied with everything they'd asked her to do prior to this, Beckett and Esposito were willing to grant her request; they read her the Miranda rights in the elevator ride down, to which she replied she understood and the minute Aurora was in the back seat of the Crown Vic she thrust her arms through the gap in the front seats.

'As promised.'

Esposito slapped the cold metal handcuffs over her wrists and stared at her for a moment before turning around. There was no malice in her eyes the way there had been when he'd had her in the box before, which surprised him. Surely there would have been something there, something that said _just try and hold me down, motherfucker_, the way her tone had clearly done when she had been in the box at the Twelfth before.

It was almost like...no, no that was ridiculous. That was the kind of thing that happened in trashy spy novels. Then he remembered how Meredeth had used that very idea in her second _Lady Hawk_ book and realized that it was possible.

Getting out his cellphone, Esposito turned around and texted Adam._ Gotta ask a favour, if you're free._

_Sure thing,_ was the reply. _What do you need._

_I need you to find everything you can on Aurora White, particularly her birth records._

_Birth records?_

_Yeah. We have the warrant to look at her records and I have a hunch.  
><em>

There was a slight delay on Adam's response, and Esposito didn't know whether to relax or go tense when he replied back _Sure, send it on over_.

'Missus White,' Beckett said, flicking her eyes to the rear-view mirror, 'We are not on record yet, but I would like to ask you something.'

'Of course, Detective.'

'Why are you so hell-bent on protecting Elaine White?'

'She means a great deal to me.'

Beckett thought of Madison Queller, how they'd been friends since high school, but Beckett knew cop or none she wouldn't put herself on the line for Maddie, not the way Aurora White was for Elaine Hammond. 'Did you two have an affair?'

'An affair?' The slightest hint of amusement lit Aurora's eyes. 'Oh, Elaine would be scandalized if you suggested that to her. But no, our relationship was never romantic or sexual.'

'Mmm.'

Beckett made a non-committal noise in her throat, and they passed the rest of the trip to the Twelfth in silence. While she brought Aurora to Booking, Esposito splintered off to find Adam glued to a computer with a neat little pile of print-outs at his left elbow.

'Hey Brennan,' he greeted him in a low voice. 'What have you found for me?'

'About what you'd expect. Aurora Kellerman White, born Aurora Kellerman Ross in Topeka Kansas on December eighth nineteen-sixty-seven, adoptive parents are Hailey and Marshall Ross, both still living in Topeka. She earned a scholarship to Yale School of Business for economics and did her masters in financial theory and trading at Topanga College, a private grad school associated with Columbia.'

'So she's got a good head for numbers and the stock market. Back up to that bit about her adoptive parents.'

'Yeah, it says here she was adopted at the age of six months by the Rosses, and the records of adoption were sealed until Aurora turned eighteen.'

'Can you find the birth record for me?'

Adam looked over at Esposito, squinted. 'I'm not the civilian liaison anymore, I'm weeks away from a promotion to Detective Third-Grade. A little respect for my position would be nice.'

'Sorry, Adam, I've got a lot on my mind.'

'And I don't?'

Esposito closed his eyes as he remembered the conversation he'd had with Adam about his future in-laws being so god-damn awful to Lindsay. 'I'm sorry, bro, really. Tessi's in the hospital and-'

'Oh, dude, I take it back. Sick baby trumps whacked-out religious zealots anytime. Is she okay?'

'Yeah, she's got influenza but she's doing a lot better. Doc gave her drugs and fluids by IV and so far she's keeping it down.'

'Good, good. As for the birth record, it's going to take a little bit of time for me but I can pull it off if you've got the warrant.'

Esposito pulled it from the breast pocket of his suit jacket, handed it over to Adam. 'Anyone gives you shit, holler and they can deal with me.'

Adam nodded, and Esposito patted his fellow cop on the shoulder, left him to do his thing. If there was a trail to sniff out via computer, Adam Brennan was their best bet. He headed for the break-room to get some coffee and pulled out his cellphone to give Meredeth a call. He got her voicemail so he left a note telling her he missed her and loved her, and just wanted to check in and see how his princess was doing. A quick check of the watch told him that it was nearly three, which meant that Leo and Trini would be just arriving to Miss Agnes' house with Rosie so he left a voicemail there too, telling them he was so proud of them for being a great big brother and sister.

He was just about to put in a call to his parents and double check they could still take the kids for the night on Saturday when Adam stuck his head in the doorway. 'Hey, got something for you.'

'That was quick.'

'File was sealed until Aurora turned eighteen, then it became a matter of public record. You're going to want to see what I found.'


	32. Solidifying Motives

'Alright, Aurora, walk me through it one more time.'

Beckett had loathed having to wait until Ian Link showed up to start on the interrogation, but she'd held up her end of the bargain while Esposito had begun running down his hunch. She could tell he was sniffing something out and it might be something, it might be nothing but in the in-between time, they had Aurora in the hot seat.

She pulled out a chair across from where Aurora sat with her hands primly folded on the table. 'Tell me why you didn't think you should tell Detective Esposito why you waited for Elaine Hammond at her hotel smack-dab in the middle of the coroner's time of death.'

'I didn't think it was necessary to make myself look any guiltier to you than I already appeared after my fingerprints were found on the knife.'

'Well, given your behaviour with us, you certainly don't look innocent so tell me again, why were you there?'

'Like I said the first two times, I was waiting for her, to see her and make sure she knew everything would be okay after she gave Victor those pills.'

'How did she look?'

'I'm sorry?' Aurora blinked in confusion. 'How did she look?'

'How did she look? Calm, exhilarated, frightened, enraged?'

'She looked like a zombie, like she was in a fugue state. I thought she might be in shock at seeing him passed out and drooling.'

Beckett took out the death photos of Victor Hammond, his bloodied body splayed face down on the cool tiles of his Tudor City townhouse. 'I would think causing this would have made a little more of an impact than a fugue state.'

'I've seen that photo before.' But Aurora shoved it away, looked away from it. 'The other detective, Esposito, showed it to me. Why are you making me look at it again?'

'Because this woman that your helping, protecting like she's a child, she is responsible for this.'

'You think Elaine did this?' Now Aurora looked sincerely shocked. 'Elaine may have been hurt by Victor emotionally, but she isn't capable of this kind of violence.'

'No? You don't think she might snap after how many years of his abuse and think, it's not enough to watch him lose me, he must suffer and pay for everything he did to me? I know if I was in her shoes, I'd want to humiliate him, get him back in a big way.' Beckett shrugged with a casual jerk of her shoulders. 'She stops in to check, makes sure she's given him enough in his nightly smoothie. She sees him lying there, sees the knives in the kitchen block and before she knows what she's doing, she's got one in her hands and hitting him with it over and over and over.'

'No!' Aurora shook her head, but there was no temper in her voice, it was desperation, as though she were pleading for it not to be true. 'No, Elaine could never do that, she's so kind and gentle.'

'The last time I checked, kind and gentle people don't poison their husband's smoothies with roofies.'

'Everyone has a breaking point, Detective.' Aurora looked Beckett dead in the eye now. 'I read the stories in the paper about the case with those dirty cops, how they bought a hitman who killed your mother. Didn't you ever reach a breaking point trying to solve that case?'

'This isn't about me, it's about Elaine.' Beckett knew that it would come off as a diversion tactic but at the moment, she didn't care; she wanted some friggin' answers. 'And you too, Aurora. You know that if you had any part in this, you are going to prison. That's not a threat, that's a promise. You know it's in your best interest to start telling us the whole truth from the top.'

Before Aurora could respond there was a tap from the other side of the one way glass. Beckett paused the interview officially, found Ian Link and Esposito on the other side of the glass which surprised her, discussing something in hushed, heated tones.

'Are you sure?'

'It's a matter of public record.'

'Will I need to cross-reference in Topeka?'

'Detective, what's going on?' Beckett inquired and Esposito looked at her.

'It's been bugging me a lot this woman would be so willing to throw it all away for a woman like Elaine Hammond, so Adam and I dug into Aurora's background and found this.'

Esposito handed over a sheet and Beckett scanned it - it was Aurora White's birth certificate, the original one from before the adoption by her parents listing a Wilhelmina Morrison, age seventeen, as her birth mother. 'Morrison. Same as Elaine's maiden name.'

'Mm-hmm. And we found Elaine Morrison's birth record too. Same mother listed four years later.'

'Shit.'

'Bingo.'

'Before we go down that road, we need to be sure, we need-'

'I know what we need to do, Kate, but it is going to take a day or two. We need to keep Aurora under wraps until that can happen.'

'You've got probably cause to hold her thirty-six hours,' Ian pointed out. 'She's an accomplice, no question, so we hold her as a flight risk because we know the first thing she'll do if she is released is run right to Elaine and help her get away with murder.'

'So we hold her and we figure it out.'

* * *

><p>At Saint Vincent's Hospital, Meredeth shifted in her chair as she read her book while Tessi slept. The doctor had come by and told her that she would still be in the hospital overnight, which had put Tessi in a foul little mood, especially when she pointed out she'd eaten toast with her soup and hadn't thrown up once. To make it even worse, Miss Agnes had stopped by with the twins and Rosie, and they'd collected little Max back to her place, and as Tessi had no roommates, she was all alone with only Meredeth and a television for company.<p>

Her brave little soldier was trying so hard, Meredeth thought. She wanted desperately to be better, not only to be healthy once more but also because her new puppy was coming home on Sunday and Tessi wanted to be front and centre for puppy-proofing on Saturday.

There was a knock on the door and Tessi jolted awake as Meredeth unfolded herself from her chair beside the hospital bed. She opened the door and her jaw dropped when she saw who it was.

'What are you doing here?' she asked as she threw her arms around Esposito, who had two gift bags in his hand and a grocery bag in the other.

'We had to call it a day, let the lab techs do their thing. We may have a motive for why the two suspects are working together.'

'Good, good.' Meredeth gave him a kiss, then stepped out of the way. 'Tessi, you have a guest.'

'Daddy!' Even in her slightly drug-addled state, the almost-eight-year-old sat up and smiled with nothing but pure love on her face. 'Did you get the bad guys?'

'No, but it was time to say 'that's enough for today', and I went present shopping for you.' Esposito passed her one of the little bags, then held it back a moment. 'But only if Mami agrees to go home and get some rest since she's been super-awesome looking after you.'

'Will she be back to say night-night?'

'Yes, she will, we both will,' he reassured her. 'But Mami needs a nap too, and a shower and her supper. Besides she's been hogging my princess all day on me.'

Without missing a beat, Tessi looked at her mother, blew her a kiss. 'Adios, Mami. Love you, see you in a little while.'


	33. Taking Care of the Cop

For the third time this week on this very difficult case, the first thing that took Beckett one step closer to relaxing for the evening was hearing the sound of her daughter greet her and race over to help with her outer gear.

'Mumum! You home! You cash baddies to-day?'

Beckett smiled as she looked at her little girl who was helping untie her winter boots. Jojo loved to help people get comfy, she thought. 'We didn't catch them, but we're getting closer.'

'Good. No geddin' 'way f'om you. You bes' de-de-tiff ev-ah!'

'Where's your brother?'

'Ah-Shay an' Daddy makin' yummy suppah.' When Jojo was satisfied her mother was sufficiently relaxed from her busy day of chasing criminals, she wrapped her fingers around two of Beckett's and tugged her mother in the direction of the kitchen. 'It 'Talian, like Cah-wee an' Vi'let an' Finn.'

She herded her mother over to where Castle was stirring a pan of browning ground beef while RJ was shredding cheese on the child-safe grater. 'Ah-cuse me, Misser Boy Shifs! Mumum here!'

'Hey Mumum!' RJ, who had his hands full of mozzarella cheese, looked up from his spot at the counter and gave her a grin that matched his father's. 'Look! We're making ravioli casserole just for you!'

'Oh, you guys know how to make me feel better,' Bekcett sighed with a soft smile as she took a seat at the kitchen table.

'You sad, Mumum?' Jojo looked panicked. 'No sad, Mumum!'

'Jojo-'

'Here, I say joke an' you 'mile.'

The little girl climbed into her mother's lap, adorably clearing her throat. 'Knot-knot.'

'Who's there?'

'Wash.'

'Wash who?' Beckett asked, curious.

'Wash out baddies! Mumum gonna gesha!'

Jojo split into a fit of giggles and Beckett laughed with her, cuddling her close. 'Jojo, my little bumblebee, did you come up with that on your own?'

'Ah-Shay hep me.'

'I taught her an easy one, Mumum.' With the cheese successfully grated, RJ wiped off his hands and went to pour his mother something to drink. 'And she's been working on it all afternoon.'

'Make it piff-eck, Mumum. Daddy an' Ah-Shay say paddis make it piff-eck.'

'That's right, you have to practice lots to get it right. Thank you RJ,' she added when he brought her a wine glass; she took a sip and wrinkled her nose at the unanticipated taste. 'What is that?'

'Cranberry juice, Mumum. Daddy said you have to wait to have your grown-up stuff later, when your tummy is nice and full of ravioli.'

'Oh.' Beckett took another sip and gave her son a sweet smile. 'Thanks for looking out for me buddy.'

'You're welcome, Mama. Would you like a biscotti?'

'No cookies a-fore suppah!' Jojo looked scandalized. 'You 'poil you' tummy!'

'But remember Jojo?' RJ went back to the island, where he had a plate covered with a tea-towel. 'We made the fancy biscotti that are like bread-sticks!'

'Oh yeah! They way yummy.'

'Alright, guys, give Mumum a little room. She's had a busy day.' Castle stirred together sauce and meat, poured it over the casserole dish of steaming ravioli and added RJ's shredded cheese before popping it in the oven. He'd gotten the gist of how things had gone with the barrage of expletive-laden texts she'd sent him while waiting for Ian Link to arrive at the precinct. He popped the casserole in the oven, then came over and kissed his wife with a laugh. 'How very fifties-twisted of us. You come home, play with the kids while I've got a casserole in the oven.'

'But that's out job, Daddy,' RJ protested. 'Mumum makes sure New York City is a safe place for us and we make sure she is loved and has a full tummy of energy to catch the new bad guys.'

'Lossa 'ner-shee,' Jojo agreed, poking a delicate fingertip at her mother's juice glass. 'Sippy-sip, Mumum, it goo' fo' you.'

'Thanks, bumblebee.'

Beckett took another drink, then stood up which effectively slid Jojo to her feet. 'You guys are wonderful but I need a few minutes to myself where I don't have to think too hard, okay?'

'O-kay, Mumum.' Completely missing the point, Jojo took her mother's hand once more and walked her towards the stairs. 'You nee' nap-time? You wan' a 'tory? Maybe you nee' bat'-time.'

'Jojo.' Castle caught up to his little girl, scooped her up in his arms. 'Mumum has been talking to people all day, she just needs some quiet time right now.'

'Oh. O-kay, Mumum, we say when suppah-time!'

Jojo pecked her mother's cheek and chattered away to Castle while Beckett headed upstairs to take her daughter's suggestion and draw herself a hot bath. She ran the water, letting the tub fill while she secured her gun and badge and stripped down to her undies. Out of habit, she put her cellphone on the top of the closed toilet lid; Castle had never understood that one until he reminded her the manner in which her apartment had been blown to hell by that idiot Scott Dunn. After that, he never questioned the places she kept her cellphone.

With the Japanese cherry blossom bubbles sitting like fluffy clouds atop the water, she slipped off her bra and panties and let herself sink into the welcoming warm. For a moment she wondered if this was what her husband felt like when they where getting hot and heavy and... 'There is no good way to finish that thought,' she said aloud with a little giggle, combing her fingers through her hair as she sank down beneath the bubbles.

When she resurfaced she heard the chirping of her cellphone and swore ripely as she recognized Esposito's ring-tone of the month. She dried her hands and without preamble answered, 'This better be fucking good, I'm in the bathtub and it's cozy.'

'With bubbles? Meredeth likes bubbles, and she's sexy when she's soapy.'

'You're filthy. Do you have a reason for calling?'

'I got a call from Julian, he said that Aurora White's lawyer wants to see us.'

'Fuck.'

'Not to deal, Beckett,' Esposito continued, 'he wants Aurora to give us the entire story from the start without...twins, cover your ears...without any bullshit half-truths.'

Considering it was the first time Aurora had demanded her representative in the whole nasty business and she seemed misguidedly loyal to Elaine for reasons they were still trying understand, Beckett was willing to lay a little on faith. She sat up straighter, reached for her towel. 'I'll be there as soon as I can.'

Beckett took one longing look at her tub as she redressed, felt her stomach clench when she headed downstairs and smelled the ravioli casserole. Her children were just finishing setting the table while Castle opened up a bottle of wine to enjoy with dinner.

'Mumum!' RJ looked at her redressed with her wet hair. 'Why are you done in your bathtub so soon?'

'Esposito called, the bad guy asked for her lawyer and wants to talk to us tonight.'

'Oh.' RJ frowned, looked over at Castle who had already put ravioli into a little Tupperware bowl, added a few savoury biscotti. 'It's okay, Mumum, we will have bedtime stories later tonight.'

'For sure, my little prince. I never miss that.'

'Can we read the ginger-bread story again?'

'You bet.'

'And we can have bed-time dessert?'

'That's pushing it,' Beckett warned him lovingly as Castle gave her a lingering kiss when he handed over her dinner. 'Come give me a kiss.'

'No, no mooshin'! Huh-wee, Mumum!' Jojo implored her. 'Baddies gonna get 'way!'


	34. Confessing Most of the Sins

'Has she said anything yet?'

'No, sir. Just said that her lawyer was here and she wanted to talk to you and Detective Esposito.'

Beckett nodded at Julian who was standing outside the interview room, stabbed her plastic fork into the ravioli in her bowl; she'd had to heat it up in the break-room microwave but it was better than interrogation on an empty stomach. Montgomery had always teased her that he knew how hungry she was for a snack by how snappy she got in the box.

She was cramming in the last of it when she saw Esposito emerge from the elevator, polishing off the last of some delectable treat courtesy of his wonderful wife.

'Hey, sorry, I got held up at home. Tessi got home with Meredeth and she needed me to tuck her into bed.'

'Oh, that's good, she's keeping solids down?' Beckett asked, depositing her empty ravioli bowl onto her desk.

'Yeah, she had tea, chicken soup with crackers, even had a little toast with Nutella on it. When she kept that down and digested it with no Linda Blair pea-soup moves, she was sprung with her medicines around the same time you and I called it a day.' Esposito licked crumbs off of his thumb, looked at Julian. 'How long have they been waiting?'

'Fifteen minutes at most, sir.'

'Julian, you don't need to call me sir,' Esposito reminded him.

'I know sir. Habit from my days in the air force.'

'How come you never tried for the detective's exam?'

Julian shook his head. 'After two tours in Gulf Two doing bomb and ordinance disposal, I promised my wife and kids I'd have a nice safe desk job. I'll be at my desk if you need me.'

Esposito and Beckett watched him lumber off before turning to the observation room and watching Aurora with a woman who was probably the same age as the prisoner but thanks to stress and hard living appeared years older. She had paper peach skin and a face as wrinkly as a pug dog, and pale eyes that kept darting towards the one-way glass, as though she knew she were being watched.

'What do you make of this?' she asked Esposito.

'What?'

'This woman has tonnes of money. Hell, her husband is a lawyer and yet she goes with Jessica Fletcher in there?' Beckett gestured towards the elderly-looking woman. An idea struck and she looked at Esposito. 'You think you can run down to Booking for a moment?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Jackie's in the lab tonight, right?' Beckett detailed her plan and Esposito nodded, though he looked a little skeptical. 'What? You think I'm being paranoid?'

'No, not paranoid. Unorthodox, but not paranoid.'

'Good. Tap on the door, not the glass, when you're back.'

Beckett opened the door, walked in with her files and back-up recorder. She recited the necessary information for the record, then folded her hands on the table. 'Would you please state your name for the record ma'am?'

'My name is Minerva Dickinson,' she replied in a voice that was as creased with age as her face. 'I am Missus White's representative.'

'And what has persuaded you to change your mind and tell us the truth once and for all, Missus White?'

'My conscience, and Elaine. The doctors let me speak to her by phone this morning and I told her that in order to get this all sorted out by the police we needed to be honest- I needed to be honest, and explain the full nature of our relationship.'

'Very well.'

Aurora sighed, looked to Minerva who bowed her head in the slightest of movements, signaling for her to speak. 'My mother was a teenage mother, not well off and she gave up my care to people who wanted a baby and had the means to care for it. She became pregnant a second time, this time with Elaine only she kept Elaine because by then she had a job and was capable of taking care of a baby.'

'Did you know who she was?'

'Yes, I did.' Aurora nodded. 'And she knew who I was, though we never discussed it in public. It was never kept a secret by my parents who my birth mother was, as she hadn't given me up because I was an inconvenience to her. She wanted a good life for me, and from what I've heard Elaine talk about she was given as much advantage as her mother could afford. We didn't go to the same school but we knew each other, until Elaine's mother and Elaine moved to New York when she was transferred there for work.'

She paused, sipped the water Julian had brought her prior to the detective's arrival. 'We reconnected, as I said, through a theatre circle. Elaine loves the theatre, which I thought was quite odd since Victor was such a dramatic personality, but she said for a few hours a night she could lose herself in someone else's problems and make her forget her own.'

'Take us through the tipping point.'

'I'm sorry, the what?'

'The tipping point,' Beckett repeated, 'where Elaine came to you and said 'I've had enough, I need your help to escape'. What happened with that conversation.'

'I'd like to say something here,' Minerva interjected. 'My client is already facing numerous charges on obstruction of justice and lying to the police. She's already made it clear how minimal her part is in this. I won't have you asking her to talk about things that make her look more guilty than she is.'

'We've already established that this is about information only, Counselor. We just need the truth about Elaine Hammond.'

'Elaine came to me at work, she even made an appointment under her maiden name with me,' Aurora told them, 'and explained to me what it was she wanted, that she needed some money set-up in my name for her to access so that she could. We went to my bank, explained that I wanted the account and she needed to be able to access it without question.'

'What about her plan to drug her husband and kill him?'

'Kill him?' Aurora shook her head. 'No, that was never her plan. She wanted to write a tell-all book about him, how horrible he was and humiliate him as she'd been humiliated, though I think her real plan was to get a settlement out of court. They had a prenup that was iron-clad.'

'I know.'

'She would have had nothing if he left her, and if he died from natural causes, she would get half of what he had when they were married.'

'What about murder?'

'She would get five percent times the number of years they were married. Victor set that price so high because he believed no one would try to kill him, he believed his public persona made him beloved by nearly everyone.'

Beckett did the math in her head; she'd seen Victor's income tax return from the previous year and had nearly choked on her coffee when she'd read the figures. 'So that's roughly one million and a quarter, right?'

'Right.'

'So here's my question. Did she wait until she knew she'd get the big payoff or was she really sick of being abused by him?'

'Elaine is a gentle creature,' Aurora said for what felt like the millionth time. 'She is not a violent person or an evil on, she just finally realized that what he was doing to her was wrong.'

'I don't believe that,' Beckett said. 'Something had to have happened for her to have been worked up enough to go from being so sweet and kind to planning and carrying out a scheme with this degree of complexity. So what happened?'


	35. Making Sense Finally

'I'm not saying another word. You can believe me or not.' Aurora folded her arms over her chest. 'Any other questions you have can be directed to my attorney.'

She tried for another twenty minutes, but got no further than if she'd been trying to move Gibraltar with a toothpick. When Aurora and Minerva were escorted out she just sat there, trying to get herself together because she knew it wouldn't look good if the primary investigator had a nuclear meltdown in the middle of the interview room. She gathered her things and in her mumble-grumble state

'Who the hell does that bitch think she is? Who does she think _I_ am? Do I look that that stupid? I know she's up to something and I am spending my night away from my husband and children listening to her play keep-away with...with...argh!'

She let out a little screech and stalked to her desk, Esposito hot on her heels. 'When you're done breathing fire, you will be very interested to see what our friendly neighbourhood fingerprint tech found out.' He held up the file with the printout. 'You are not going to believe this.'

'What!' Beckett hisssed at him, thumping her files down on her desk. 'Please, for the love of God, I am sick to death of all the liars in this frickin' case! '

Esposito said nothing, handed her the paper. 'If you're going to spew, may I suggest the break-room, that way everyone will think the shrieking is the milk-steamer on Brewster.'

Beckett just glared at him, and because it was Esposito's night to be entertained. She handed the paper back to him and he watched with glee while she went into the breakroom and close all the doors; she did indeed turn on the milk-steamer on Brewster the handy-dandy cappuccino maker then stood in front of the refrigerator as though searching for the skim-milk and let out a loud scream. He couldn't help but chuckle as she straightened up, turned off Brewster and marched out with a bright pink face.

'Are you kidding me? Are you _fucking_ kidding me?' Beckett looked positively apoplectic as she yanked the paper back out of his hand once more. 'How the hell would Minvera's prints match Elaine Hammond's? Elaine Hammond is on suicide watch!'

'She was released on a day pass for twenty-four hours into the custody of Aurora and Judah White. Her pass expires in-' he checked his watch '-forty-five minutes.'

'Fuck me.'

'No thanks, that's a Castle-only zone.'

Beckett snarled at him. 'Tell another joke, I dare you.'

'Get the blood out of your eye or you'll miss what else I gleaned from Jackie in the print and DNA lab.' Because he needed something to do, Esposito headed towards the break-room where he turned Brewster on fully to make them each a double latte. He let the coffee brew, then looked at her. 'Remember how we found three set of DNA on the knife?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, it turns out that the prints are wrong.'

Beckett swore she could actually hear the neurons frying in her brain. 'What the fuck do you mean the prints are wrong.'

'Aurora told us that she went to visit Elaine and she was in the kitchen using a knife, right? Aurora eased it out of her hand.'

'Right.'

'Only Jackie and I discovered another little something.' Esposito pulled out a glossy photo, this one taken under UV light. 'Take a look.'

Beckett sighed, and looked at the photo for herself. She saw two sets of purple prints, the natural colour for body oil in ultra-violet light - and a second set almost directly beneath in bright yellow.

'What is that?'

'That is a very messy situation.'

'I'm all ears.'

'Okay, we knew there was three sets of DNA on the knife, right? Victor's blood, Elaine's body oils and Aurora's body oils. This tells us one very crucial thing - when Elaine was handling the knife, she had some kind of substance on her fingers that would be transparent to the naked eye,' Esposito replied, 'and would just show up as regular prints if someone did a dusting like Jackie did. Since Jackie is the thorough sort, she had this ready and waiting for me in the lab when I asked her to run Minvera Dickinson's prints against our two leading ladies.'

'She marked the knife,' Beckett breathed. 'She marked the knife so that when the killer came into the house, all they needed was a UV pen-light to see which knife they were supposed to use.'

'Yep. Suddenly this fragile little flower thing doesn't fit so well, huh?'

'My brain needs a break.'

'Agreed. Latte?'

They took their coffees back to Beckett's desk, where they studied the murder-board and the stills they'd printed from the various traffic and security cameras. Esposito took the time to look at the financial records and he squinted, looked up at the board. 'Beckett?'

'Yeah.'

'We truly are that stupid if we missed this. Remember what Riley said about the boots, how expensive they were?'

'Mm-hmm,' Beckett said absently, trying to mull it over and make sense of it.

'He said the custom jobs run to about four-thousand, right? So why does only pair cost almost double the top of the line?'

'Because she had two.' Her head whipped around, the pieces suddenly clicking into place as an idea galloped through her brain. 'How did we miss that? Is Riley in the lab tonight?'

'Yeah, Andrews is out of town at a conference so he's working nights until Tuesday.'

'Excellent.'

Beckett waited the four humming seconds until she heard his sunny 'Cheese Whiz, what's your beef?'

'Riley, Beckett. You've still got the tapes from the hotel security footage on Elaine Hammond and Aurora White, right?'

'Yeah.'

'And the credit card info about the shoes we examined?'

'Yeah,' he repeated warily, 'why?'

'Can you pull up the individual credit card sale record on the shoes, or is that out of your wheelhouse?'

'Normally out of my purview but since you asked nicely I'll make an exception.'

Beckett closed her eyes in relief, blew out a quiet breath. 'Can you have it ready in about twenty?'

'Sure.'

'Great. Detective Esposito will be down to pick it up at...' Beckett looked at her watch. 'Seven pm on the nose. If he waits until seven-oh-two, your ass is grass and I'm a lawnmower.'

'Yes sir.'

She hung up, looked at Esposito. 'She set her up.'

'I'm not sure I follow you just yet.'

'Come on, keep up Espo, you're the one who figured out the shoes, right?' Beckett picked up a black dry-erase marker and circled Elaine's feet blown-up on the traffic cam and hotel cam stills. 'When we took Aurora White into custody, I noticed she was wearing the shoes and she said she was given these as a Christmas gift by Elaine when she had to hand them over as evidence in Booking. The lab told us those were the shoes worn by the killer, right?'

'Right.'

'So look at that picture.' Beckett tapped a third one, the image of Elaine and Aurora walking down the hallway together, and Esposito cursed.

'They're wearing the same damn shoes.'

'Not just the same, those are identical.'

The desk phone rang and they both jumped a foot in the air. Beckett took a moment before she answered. 'Beckett.'

'It's Riley. Just thought I'd tell you that credit card purchase on the Dante Brunetti shoes, there's two pairs listed on the date of sale.'


	36. Clapping Crooks in Irons

At six-fifty-three, they had their footage from Riley; at seven-oh-two, they were in Beckett's ride and speeding to the hospital to confront Elaine Hammond. They barreled past the nurse at the reception desk who tried desperately in vain to warn them that visiting hours were over and they would have to leave. Beckett barely registered her voice in her ears, and they were in the elevator, formulating a game plan while the nurse pounded desperately on the doors.

'I talk,' Beckett said, staring at the numbers light up with every floor they passed.

'I figured.'

'You need to let her see just how infuriated I am that she thought she could pull this kind of shit on us and get away with it.'

Esposito nodded, sucked in a breath as the elevator doors opened and Beckett stalked out like a heat-seeking Predator to the nurses station. She slapped her badge on the counter, braced her hands.

'Elaine Hammond, she still in her same room?'

'Yes, but- oh you can't go in, her doctor is in there now on nightly rounds!'

'Watch me.'

Beckett whirled away and moved to the room; she was thankful Elaine was in a private room because that way she didn't disturb a roommate when she shoved open the door, put her hand on her weapon holstered on the small of her back. Elaine was in bed in her own pyjamas, having her blood pressure read by the physician in scrubs.

'We just came from a little chat with Aurora, Elaine, and you might think you're pretty good but our lab guys have very good tools at their disposal. Some might even say they're the best. Like this.'

Beckett held up a clear bag that had the Dante Brunetti boots in them. 'Our people determined that it was your feet in these boots when Victor Hammond was stabbed. You swapped her shoes when you arrived at the hotel, you made sure she left wearing the boots you had on when you killed your husband.'

'Aurora killed him, for me,' she said innocently. 'She wouldn't let him get away with everything he'd done to me.'

'You may have convinced yourself of that, and taking those pills to make sure we didn't look too closely at you as a suspect was a nice try but like I said, my people are very, very good.'

Beckett produced from her field bag the UV-light photo of the murder weapon knife. 'B-12 vitamin dissolved in vinegar. Easy household spy weapon with your prints lighting up like a Christmas tree. The same prints found with smears of blood in them as you adjusted your hold on the knife when you plunged it into the still-breathing Victor Hammond.'

'You many wanna stop that, Doc,' Esposito murmured to the physician. 'It'll screw up your charts.'

'My reading says one-sixteen over seventy-two.'

Beckett continued to stare at Elaine, who had gone very still. 'Of course it does because she isn't panicking, she's planning Doctor. How am I going to spin this, what's my next move. Well, I'll tell you right now. You are going to get dressed and you're going to be released from this hospital AMA, and taken to the police station.'

'Detective,' the doctor interjected, 'this woman is on highly-controlled substances to stabilize her emotions.'

'You think so? Go ahead, do a quick blood panel. I'll wait.'

'Detective Beckett.' Finally Elaine spoke. 'I can understand how you'd want to implicate me in this, but I can assure you that it's not in my nature to kill someone.'

'I believe it is. I kept trying to figure out why the hell someone as smart as you, who handles the money for the household would put up with the kind of crap Victor put you through and it hit me.' Beckett leaned forward, hand still bracing on her weapon. 'You used your background as a CPA and notary public to draw up the prenup according to his wishes. You knew once the money started piling up divorce wasn't an option, so you set up your own sister once you knew that you'd cleared the million-dollar mark on the murder clause.'

There was a thrumming silence as the women squared off silently; Esposito let his hand drift down to his own sidearm in case Elaine suddenly went full fruit-cake and tried to strangle Beckett with the IV drip in her arm. The tension finally broke when Elaine was the first to blink and a small little smile graced her lips.

'How will you prove it? A pair of boots and a knife with Aurora's prints? Is that all you've got, you stupid bitch?'

'That's just he tip of the iceberg. But you'll get to wait to hear about that, because that's the lawyer's job.'

Elaine said nothing, remained cold and impassive as Esposito stepped up while Beckett recited the Miranda rights to Elaine Hammond and he put the handcuffs on her. Though Beckett knew it was bad form, this broad had really pushed her to the edge, and she couldn't resist getting in a little jab.

'Who's the bitch now, Elaine.'

* * *

><p>It was nearly eleven when Esposito finally made it home, but with good reason. Elaine Hammond had lawyered up and had no problem being held in the tank until Monday when he and Beckett were back on duty to continue wrapping things up for Ian Link and his boss.<p>

Esposito tossed his keys into the bowl by the door, stowed his gun and went into the kitchen for a drink. He caught sight of the note on the fridge door and grinned.

_I have a treat upstairs. Come and get it, big boy. xx, M._

As he'd called her to let her know he was on his way home, Esposito uesd the trip to the second floor to muse over what she might have cooked up for them. But before he went into his own bedroom, he made the rounds to his children first, starting with Max. Much like his mami, Max moved around a lot in his sleep and would have probably rolled himself right out of bed if not for the guard.

'Love you, Max Power,' he murmured, kissing his son's brow.

The twins were next, and it appeared that it was going to be laundry day the next day as Esposito had to pick his way around little lumps of tangled clothes. Trini was nicknamed the Hurricane for a reason, he thought as he gave his little girl a kiss on the cheek and repeated it for his big man. 'Love you, Hurricane and Lion.'

Finally he made it to Tessi and his heart broke a little when he saw that Tessi had tucked herself into bed with Arturo's neon-green collar clutched in her hand as she kept Crush in a hammerlock. He made his way to her bed, combed her hair with his fingers.

'I know you miss your buddy, princess,' he murmured, then stopped when Tessi snorted herself awake, blinked bleary eyes at her father.

'Daddy, that you?'

'No, it's Ponce de Leon.'

'You're silly. Did you get the bad guys?'

'Yes.'

'Yea, good job Daddy.' Tessi thumped her head back on her pillow. 'Night-night.'

Her little eyes closed, and Esposito gave her head a little kiss. His tots looked after, Esposito went to his own room and grinned when he saw that it wasn't hot sex with Meredeth that awaited him tonight, but Meredeth in bed wearing cute jammies watching _Shark Week_ on DVD while a platter of cold-cuts, cheese, coleslaw and ciabatta rolls waited on the bureau. On his beside table was a pitcher of what he knew was sparkling mango juice with ice to keep it cold.

'Mere, you are the best wife in the world. I love you so much.'

'I love you so much right back. Now, let's eat.'


	37. Organizing the Surprise

The next morning, Meredeth awoke early in bed with her husband's arm around her body to the sound of her cellphone ringing. She picked it up with a lazy 'Hello?'

'Meredeth? Hi, it's Lindsay. Adam's girlfriend?'

'Morning Lindsay. What can I help you with? What time is it?'

'Almost nine. I was calling because Adam gave me a spa package and it includes a guest, and Adam said that you've dealt with some pretty crazy family stuff so maybe you'd be good to talk to about what we were dealing with this week, you know girl-talk, so are you interested in getting buffed and waxed?'

'I don't know, Lindsay, the offer is lovely but we've got a lot to do today, getting ready for the dog, and- hang on.'

Meredeth out the call on hold when she saw Esposito had woken up and was trying to get her attention. 'Morning, babe, what's up?'

'Is that Lindsay on the phone?'

'Yes, how did you know?'

'Tell her you are going to the spa with her.'

'How-'

'I picked up the difference for Adam to make his treat for her into a girls-day for two, so you can get your sexy on, my red hot Danish angel.' Esposito gave her a sizzling kiss, rolling them so that they were wrapped intimately together, her knees bracketing his hips while his mouth worked its way over her jaw to her earlobe. 'Consider it phase one of my surprise for you. Remember? I told you I was going to treat you this weekend and I keep my promises to my wife.'

Meredeth's insides went buttery soft, but she was still a practical woman. 'What about the kids and puppy-proofing and everything?'

'I've got it under control. You need this, Mere, you work so hard and I love you so much, I want to make sure you know I think of you as a smoking hot woman, not just a mama and a wife.'

'Oh, Javi.'

He kissed her, the kind that made her toes curl up, and when she felt his hand on her breast, she let out a little squeak. 'Javi, I've still got Lindsay on hold.'

'Okay. You talk to her, I'll ravish you.' But Esposito relented just enough that Meredeth could pick the call back up without it being obvious she had her husband between her thighs.

'Lindsay? You still there?'

'Yeah, Mere, right here.'

'I'm in. Where are we going, where are we meeting?'

'No, no, it's a surprise. Adam and Javier are doing it up all fancy. They had Lili arrange a town-car for us. I'll meet you at your house at ten-thirty.'

Meredeth's eyes popped wide. 'Ten-thirty? But I have to get the kids ready and the house done and-'

'Mere,' Lindsay laughed. 'Your hubby and my fiance have a few tricks up their sleeves for us today, so just take a breath and be ready for me, okay?'

'Okay. See you soon.'

Meredeth hung up the phone, then turned her attention back to her husband, who was grinning like an altar boy with a frog hiding under his robes to scare the nuns. 'What are you up to, _cari_?'

'God I love when you speak Spanish, Mere.' Esposito rocked his hips against hers and Meredeth groaned when she felt him at attention. 'Makes me so hot.'

They fit in a quick one, the kind that cleared the head and energized the body for the day while still showing each other there was no other lover in the world for them. To save time they showered together, and it was only when they were toweling off that Meredeth blinked, realized what the late hour meant.

'Javi, what about the kids? What have they been up to this morning?'

Esposito grinned, kissed his wife's worrying cheek. 'Clothes first, then you'll see.'

Once dressed, hand in hand, they walked down the hallway to Tessi's room where they saw their four babies camped out: Trini and Leo and Max were all sitting on the floor with small bowls of cereal in their lap. Two boxes of cereal - Mini-Wheats for Trini, Cheerios for Leo and Max - sat on Tessi's dresser, as did the pitcher of milk. In bed Tessi had a small bowl of some orange fruit and raspberries, and her sports-bottle full of apple juice. They were all glued to the second mini-DVD player they'd perched on Tessi's overstuffed arm-chair where they were watching _Finding Nemo_.

'Morning everyone,' Esposito said and they looked over, gave their daddy a wave.

'Mo-nin' Mami, mo-nin' Daddy!' Max trilled, carefully scooping up Cheerios. 'We washin' tuh-tills ah-cause Tessi no feelin' so hot an' she love tuh-tills.'

'That's right, Max Power,' Leo agreed. 'We brought her breakfast in bed, but not cereal breakfast because she is still woozy in her tummy so she gets nice soft mango slices and raspberries, because those are healthy and easy to eat.'

'They won't make her throw up and she gets to join in. No one gets left out,' Trini concluded regally.

'They are the best brothers and sister ever,' Tessi sighed with a little smile; she was truly thankful she had such understanding siblings. 'Daddy, did Lindsay call with the surprise for Mami?'

'She sure did, Tessi-boo, so come and give Mami a hug and a kiss because her ride will be here soon and I want to make Mami her breakfast.'

'She geddin' 'ishal bik-fas'?' Max asked. 'Ah-cause she a supah-'pishal mami?'

'You know it, Max.'

'She geddin' shocolate fo' bik-fas'?'

'Maybe. Come and give Mami a kiss. The next time you see her she'll look like a beautiful princess.'

'But Mami _is_ a beautiful princess, Daddy,' Trini reminded him, getting to her feet to hug her mother. 'Now she'll be even more beautiful.'

'And she gets to see her friend, too, that's always a fun time,' Leo added when it was his turn.

From her spot on the bed, Tessi blew her mother kisses. 'I don't want you to catch my germs, Mami.'

'Under stood.'

'Wai'!' Max howled, and gripped Meredeth tight around the thighs. 'No' fo-giddin' me!'

'Of course not, Max,' Meredeth replied, adding a little 'mmm' when she held him tight. 'I love all of you very, very much.'

'Love you too, Mami,' the four little ones replied together.

Esposito smiled, kissed Meredeth's cheek. 'Head downstairs, I'll be right down. Need to talk to the troops here.'

When Meredeth was out of earshot, he turned to his kids and quietly closed the door. 'Okay, you guys know the drill, we are going to have a bunch of people here to get the house ready for Tortuga coming home tomorrow right? I need all of you to be on your best behaviour and listening because it's going to be busy for a few hours but the more people we have helping us the less time it is going to take.'

'Why are we doing this without Mami, though,' Leo asked. 'Won't she be sad?'

'No, not this time, Leo. She's been so busy this week and I want to make sure she knows how much I love her, not just for being a mami but for being the lady I love with all my heart,' Esposito explained to him, 'so I made sure she gets to go to the spa to make herself feel pretty, and we are going to surprise her with doing something really nice for her.'

'Hmm, Daddy?' Tessi thought it over. 'Maybe, maybe we can buy her flowers too? She is so good at looking after me when I've been sick, we should do something nice for her too.'


	38. Seeking a Friend's Advice VI

With Meredeth safely away with Lindsay for the day, Esposito looked in the fridge to make sure there was plenty of beer and juice, and he saw in the freezer there was also some frozen enchiladas in a casserole dish that only required heating in the oven. He gave a nod; that would be great for the little kids and he'd rustle up something for the adults.

At quarter to eleven, there was the first knock on the door and Esposito felt a warmth of brotherhood bloom brightly in his chest when he answered it.

'Hey, there's the world traveler!'

Ryan grinned, gave him a solid embrace complete with back-slaps. 'Just got in last night around suppertime.'

'It was so cool, we had so much fun, Esposito!' Dell sauntered in to the bottom stairs, tugged off his boots and coat. 'We got to see all these neat ruins of old wars and churches, and this really neat thing called the Book of Kells.'

'And we got to kiss the Barney Stone too,' Mallory added.

'The _Blarney_ Stone, Marsh-Mally,' Dell corrected her sweetly, 'but you didn't need that, you're very chatty already. Where's my Tessi?'

'She's upstairs in bed,' Esposito told him.

'Oh, was she up late waiting for you to come home from throwing the criminals in the slammer?'

'No, she had to be in the hospital on Thursday night and just came home last night. She's got the flu.'

Dell's eyes went round and in a moment, he was taking the stairs two at a time, hollering for Tessi. The adults heard their muffled voices, followed by the murmur of the DVD player in Tessi's room. 'Well, that's the boy taken care of.'

'Mally!' Trini came flying over from the living room, abandoning her game with Leo and Max to wrap her arms around her friend. 'Mally, you're here! You're home safe and sound! Come tell me all about your trip!'

'It was so much fun,' Mallory began and the two little girls were gabbling away like elementary school geese, which meant Esposito and Ryan were free to head for the kitchen and have some coffee.

'So...' Ryan looked around as Esposito turned on his precious cappuccino maker. 'I was reading the _Ledger_ online, saw Victor Hammond got whacked.'

'Yeah, that was us. Me and Kate, I mean. We took that one and it did a real number on me.'

'How's that?'

Esposito explained it to his friend what had happened, the personal hell he'd been living through trying to figure out if he really was like Victor Hammond and expected his wife to do everything at home. The last part of it had Ryan laughing out loud as Espostio ground espresso beans.

'Dude, are you high? What are you doing today? Taking care of things at home on your day off while you sent Meredeth to be beautified with her friend. A control freak like the way you describe Victor Hammond, he'd expect the little wife to be dolled up and polished twenty-four seven. He'd see a trip to the spa as a necessity, not a luxury. You had sex this week?'

Esposito's plump cheeks went a little pink; Ryan knew way too much about his private life. 'Yeah.'

'How many times?'

'Twice on Monday, once on Tuesday, and once last night,' Esposito replied, counting the times on his fingers. 'Four, that's average for us.'

'Right, there's been no spike in the attention, which means you're not going overboard, and you haven't been neglecting her. You surprise her?'

'Kevin, is this necessary.'

Ryan raised an eyebrow. 'All I'm trying to do is point out the fact that a man who treats his wife to sex four times a week and calls that average, who surprises her is not a guy who takes his wife for granted. Now if you were forcing her to sleep with you-'

'Please, Meredeth can hardly keep her hands off me.'

'See? And I'm guessing since you said that Max and Leo are having a sleepover with RJ, and Tessi and Trini are going to a girls' night with Alexis and Jojo in Grammercy Park, you've got something planned for Meredeth tonight as well, right? The kind of thing you want total privacy for, right?'

'Right.'

'Would Victor Hammond ravish his wife like that?'

'Not a chance.' Esposito let out a little breath, laughed. 'I've been feeling inside out about this all week, bro. I didn't have my main man to chat it out, you know?'

'So quit bitching. You're a great father, a great husband and you've got a wife you love, who loves you back for some reason you knucklehead.'

And just like that, the last dregs of Esposito's anxiety that he'd been carrying around with him were gone for the day. Meredeth was his lover and best friend, no question, but Ryan was his bro and sometimes you needed your bro.

'Milk?' he asked, and Ryan nodded, then looked over when he saw Dell walk in with Tessi, holding her hand.

'Tessi needed to talk a walk and wanted to show me where all her special get-better juice is,' he explained. 'She needs the change of scenery and to get away from the DVD player or she will get a headache from her eyes straining too much.'

'We don't want that,' Ryan agreed.

'Here, Dell.' Tessi coughed a little as she opened the fridge. 'Those ones, in the carton, Mami got them just for me from the organic health food store.'

'Okay. Here. Give me your juice bottle.'

Tessi handed it over to him, and he took out the ginger-ale and the Nature's Best apple juice. 'Go sit down,' Dell instructed her. 'I'll bring this to you.'

'Okay. Daddy, will we see Mami tonight before you give her the rest of her surprise?'

'No, sweetie, that's for Mami and me only.'

'Did you guys have a fight or something?' Dell asked. 'Tessi said you have been extra attentive to Meredeth, and that you needed to plan a big surprise just-because for her.'

'No, we didn't fight,' Esposito told him, 'I just want to make sure that Meredeth knows how much I love her, and that's why I'm surprising her. That's what you do when you really love someone.'

'Like how I make Tessi feel better by surprising her with tasty beverages and other surprises?'

'Look Daddy.' From under her little bathrobe and pyjamas, Tessi pulled out a string necklace that had a little jade shamrock on it. 'Dell brought it for me from Dublin. Isn't i pretty?'

'Very pretty.'

'I like to give Tessi surprises just to see her smile. Is that what you're doing with Meredeth tonight?'

'Something like that.' Esposito mocked a stern face at Dell. 'Do I need to ask you your intentions towards my daughter, Delaney?'

'Oh, no Javi. I'm going to marry her when we're big enough, right Tessi?'

'Right Dell.'

'See?' Dell gave him a winning smile as he topped off Tessi's juice bottle and twisted on the lid. 'She's my girl. Come on, sickie, into the living room, time for a game.'

They watched the kids go hand in hand into the living room and laughed. 'Oh man, those two are going to kill us in about ten years time, aren't they?'

'I think so. Right now, I'd much rather worry about seeing Tessi's face light up when she is home with her new puppy in a puppy-proof house tomorrow.'

'Then let's get started,' Ryan replied, tapping his coffee cup against his partner's, 'so you'll have plenty of time to get that other grownups only surprise ready for Meredeth.'


	39. Pampering the Ladies

While the Ry-Sposito monster awaited the arrival of the rest of their puppy-proofing help, Meredeth and Lindsay were walking off of the elevator at Midtown Retreat into their treatment suite. It was nearly identical to the one used during Alexis' last weekend of un-married life; Meredeth remembered it well, and was just as impressed as she was the last time, but the real treat was watching Lindsay as though she were a little girl seeing Santa Claus for the first time.

'Wow,' Lindsay breathed, looking around. 'This place is gorgeous!'

'This is where we came for part of Alexis' bachelorette party.'

'I thought she was exaggerating, but...wow!'

Meredeth cocked her head to the side as Lindsay zeroed in on the platter of fresh fruit that waited for them in the parlour of their suite. 'Have you never gotten to go on a spa day like this?'

'Nope, never.'

'Not even for being a bridesmaid or a special occasion?'

Lindsay shook her head. 'No. The most I ever got done was having a manicure and my hair styled for my graduation from Princeton, and even that was just for me and Adam, because

'You didn't even...' Meredeth trailed off, shook her head. 'No, I don't know you well enough to ask that question.'

'Meredeth, we're about to probably be naked around each other in a very posh setting. On top of which, I'm used to very little privacy thanks to my upbringing. Ask away.'

'I was going to say, you didn't even get a wax or something done when you went away with Adam to Bermuda?'

'Oh, yes of course that, but that is like getting a shower to me.' Lindsay shook her head as she poured them each a flute of sparkling cider, debated a chunk of pineapple or a slice of melon to try first. 'We're Finnish on my paternal grandparents' side, so we are a hairy people by nature in my family. My girlfriend from church would secretly take me to the salon so I could get my bikini line done when I turned fifteen.'

'Your mama didn't take you?'

She snorted in mild amusement. 'My mother sided with my father and told me that hair under my arms and on my lady-parts was God's way of keeping me free from the sin of sex.' Lindsay sighed as she bit into her pineapple. 'And I don't want to talk about them anymore. My parents were awful to me their whole visit here which is why Adam gave me today. He wanted me to feel beautiful and proud about being me again.'

'Excuse me.' A lovely German girl who looked like she could bench-press a Buick without breaking a sweat gave them a tender smile. 'I'm Anke, where is Meredeth?'

Meredeth rose, smoothed her robe down. 'Time for a massage?'

'Yes. Miss Lindsay, Jana is waiting for you in the other massage room.'

Meredeth followed Anke into the private massage room where she shed her robe and modesty wrap, planted herself face down on the table. 'Good to see you again, Anke.'

'It has been too long, Meredeth. Tell me, what happened that Lindsay's appointment includes you today?'

'Things have been crazy busy since Christmas and I was feeling a little overwhelmed by being a mami, and hadn't had enough time with my husband just for us. I told him this the same day he caught a case where the victim was a man who had a work-from-home wife and he walked all over her, and it made him wonder if he was being attentive enough to me, if he was taking me for granted.'

'Clearly that's not the case,' Anke commented as she began to smooth cocoa-butter lotion over Meredeth's back and hips.

'No, I...mmm, that's nice,' Meredeth murmured as the masseuse began to work her magic. 'No, it just really got to him and he wants to make sure he celebrates the woman Meredeth, not just Missus Esposito or Mami, you know?'

'I understand. My husband, he is the same way. He always leaves me notes or send a text saying, what movie do you want to watch tonight, and he'll come home with a rented disc.'

'That's sweet. Javi's a cop so f he's home late, he'll pick up flowers so I see them in the morning.'

'That's a good husband.'

'I know. We look out for each other and our kids and we love each other so much.' Meredeth turned her head to the side, closed her eyes. 'I love him.'

The next thing she knew, she was gently waking with skin so soft it felt like pudding to the touch of her finger. She could hear soft piano music drifting lightly in the background and she grinned. 'Was I drooling, Anke?'

'No, Miss Meredeth. Would you like the apricot or cucumber finishing shimmer polish?'

'Cucumber. I use cucumber soap at home and Javi loves it. He told me when we were first dating, he always slept better when he could smell my soap because he knew I was nearby and safe and happy.'

'Cucumber it is.'

When Anke had finished her work and Meredeth was certain the bones in her legs hadn't melted to Jello, she wrapped herself back up and went into the sitting room where she saw Lindsay was already preparing for her next treatment - a full-body mud mask that had the girl stripped to the skin and lying on her back while two new technicians painted warm purplish mud over her body.

'How's it going, girl?' Meredeth asked and Lindsay grinned.

'I'm in heaven. You?'

'Total bliss.'

'It's time for you to begin your waxing session, Meredeth. As you have sensitive skin, we like to take care of that earlier in your treatments,' a third technician told her.

'Oh, Mere?' Lindsay called out to her. 'Your husband will love that cucumber stuff.'

'You've got a good nose, Lindsay.'

* * *

><p>Later on, when Meredeth and Lindsay had each had their waxing done as well as a peel-mask facial and they were getting their manicures and pedicures done, Lindsay gave a blissful little sigh.<p>

'Oh, man, Adam's gonna think his fiancee has gone Hollywood. I'm going to look like Marina Sirtis.'

'Who?'

'This super-hot actress from _Star Trek: The Next Generation_.' Lindsay gave Meredeth a gooey smile. 'She's Greek and a goddess and according to Adam I could be her little sister.'

'That is so sweet.' Meredeth paused, thought of something else. 'Lindsay, do you mind if I ask a personal question?'

'Of course not.'

'I know Adam was your first serious boyfriend since your assault, so-'

'How long did it take for Adam and I to have sex?' Lindsay finished with a knowing smile.

'Yeah, that.'

'Eight months. I was ready at six but we wanted our first time together to be special so when Andrea and Daniel lent us their place in Bermuda for two weeks after I graduated from medical school, we decided to make that kind of like a honeymoon.'

'That's so sweet.' Meredeth pressed a drying hand to her heart.

'Yeah. He never rushed me, he always let me set the pace. It's how I knew I had a good one. You know how I knew you had a good one too?'

'How?'

'The first time I met you, it was at Castle's New Year's Eve party, when Adam and I had been together just about a month. You were getting pizza dough ready in the kitchen and your hands were covered in dough, and you said to him, Javi, nose, and he scratched your nose, then kissed it. That's a sweet and caring man who loves you very much.'


	40. Making Love

The day at the spa was a perfect treat, because Meredeth hadn't realized how much she'd needed it until she saw herself in the mirror after a full body massage, mani-pedi, hair treatment, facial and body scrub. She felt like what her man, her Javi, always said she looked like - a sexy Danish goddess.

She would have to get Adam a nice bottle of wine, and one for Lindsay too.

She slipped out of the hotel car, all but dancing up the steps of home; when she unlocked the door, she shut it behind her and froze.  
>The house was dark but the living room was awash with candlelight. The air smelled lightly of coconut as the flames flickered, casting long romantic shadows. In the living room a fire was roaring in the hearth, making Meredeth wonder just what her husband had in mind.<p>

'Javi?' she called out and felt her heart quicken its pace when he came out of the kitchen, barechested and barefoot in soft black pants, a silver martini shaker in his hand.

'Does this seem familiar?' he asked her with a sultry grin and Meredeth nodded.

'Our first Valentine's day. Only you came home and I was wearing a black thong, high heels and a satin apron.'

'Oh, what's this?' He held up a shiny black boutique bag in the crook of his index finger.

'You didn't!'

'I did. Go, change.'

Meredeth took the bag, ducked into the downstairs water closet to put on the same sexy outfit she'd worn for him the first time they had a Valentine's Day together. He knew her body well, for the satin apron and the thong were a perfect fit, and the shoes she recognized as from her own closet; the exact ones she'd worn for him before.

She came out of the bathroom, saw him in the kitchen pouring them what she knew would be double barrel brass monkeys since neither really had a taste for true martinis. She made her movements deliberate, each foot placed delicately in front of the other.

'Wow,' he said when he looked up, saw her there. 'You look sensational.'

Esposito dipped his finger into his drink, traced it along the swell of her breast, dipped his head to lick it off. 'Tasty,' he purred, downing his drink in three gulps; he wasn't surprised at all when she did the same thing.

'You did this for us?'

'For you,' he corrected. 'Every time I think of us having a romantic night together, this one always springs to mind.'

'Well, it is number three on our top five times.'

'What topped it?'

'The park in Christchurch on our honey-moon and the night we found out I was pregnant with Tessi.'

'Right.' Esposito licked his lips to catch any traces of his drink, saw Meredeth's eyes glaze over. 'Think we can make tonight number four?'

'I just bet we can.'

Esposito kissed her then, holding her hands palm-to-palm in his and making her shiver at the sensation. Beneath the satin of the apron he saw her nipples go to little diamond points and knew she was ready for the next part of the surprise.

'Come with me.'

He lead her into the living room, pointed to the space in front of the couch. 'See? Valentine's two-point-oh.'

Meredeth chuckled lowly when she saw he'd spread her grandfather Maximilian's bearskin rug on the hardwood floor, and nestled their video camera into the crook on the mantle of the fireplace. 'You thought of everything.'

'Yes I did. Because you were there, Meredeth, and I love you.'

'I love you too, Javier.'

Esposito drew her close, this time wrapping his arms around her body, all womanly curves and soft kissable flesh. His hands drifted up and down her spine, making her shudder, until he reached her neck and untied the strings there, letting the black satin drape down to reveal her breasts. He cupped them against his palms, scraping his thumbs over her already-hardened nipples so her eyes glazed over.

'The only thing I can't remember is if you left your shoes on or not,' he murmured, untying the strings at her waist so she was in just the thong and heels now.

Meredeth kissed him, putting her hands on his chest to feel the hard-edged thump there. She pushed him back only slightly, so he could see the mischevious glint in her eyes. 'Why don't you stretch out on that bearskin, Javi,' she murmured. 'Better view. No, wait.'

She smoothed her hands down his body, down to the button and zip of his pants and knew as she gently tugged the zipper down he was going commando. The black pants fell away from his hips and she didn't bother hiding her appreciation at his erection.

'Hello Detective,' she purred, watching him stretch out on his back, propped to the side on his elbow.

'So what am I getting a better view of?'

'This.'

Meredeth turned around, and using her years of dance training bent at the waist so her nose was nearly touching her knees as she unfastened the strap of her left shoe, then her right one before standing up straight. She threw him a look over her shoulder, saw his hand resting on the inside of his thigh. With a wink, she put her thumbs on the inside of the strings of her thong and bending once more, shove it down her body, kicked it away with her bare foot before turning around and stretching out on top of him. She loved his body, all the parts of it, even the ones she discovered he felt insecure about. She hadn't known until she met him that men, especially good looking men like him, could have doubts and insecurities over their bodies just as women did.

'My man,' she purred at him, grinding her hips against the hardening length of him, making him groaning in satisfaction.

'My woman,' he sighed back, then quick as lightning rolled them so he was nestled between her thighs, that beautiful erotic cradle, wet with arousal against his skin. He kissed her, cupping her breasts again - he couldn't get enough of them - as he rooted at her throat. Her pulse was skipping and jumping madly, in such a way that made his blood pound for her. Her hips arched against his body, tilting so her thighs fell open, as if to say whatever you want of this is yours.

'Mere,' he murmured, nipping her earlobe with his teeth. 'Mere.'

'Javi.' She nodded, her body feeling so hot, so tight with need for him. 'Yes.'

He took one of her hands and guided it down to help him ease inside her body; she popped her lips with that excited 'oh!' she always gave him. He straightened up, his eyes still on hers, as he braced his hands on the outsides of her thighs, then all but growled, 'Say it, Mere. Say it for me.'

'Fuck me, Javi,' she pleaded with him. 'Fuck me, baby, please.'

It was music to his libido, and Esposito bent back down to whisper in her ear, 'I'd rather you fuck me, Mere.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah.'

Gripping her hips Esposito rolled them so he was on his back and she was above him, looking into his eyes with her beautiful blue ones. 'Now, Mere.'

She set the pace, slow at first, then faster and faster until she was digging her fingernails into his chest and she was moaning she was coming, once, then twice as Esposito let go on a cry of release.

Spent, sated, and completely aware of just how hot she was in this moment, Meredeth slipped down bonelessly to cuddle against her husband's chest, reveling in the sound of his thundering heartbeat.

'I love you Javi.'

'I love you too, Mere.'


	41. Coming Full Circle

_Okay Crumbsians! I know I haven't given many author's notes this time around but the next one will definitely have some serious twists and turns; you'll have no nails left, guarenteed! As always, the people in my life who keep me going, you know who you are, I love you all and all of you as well, dear readers, wherever and whomever you are. Enjoy!_

* * *

><p>They lay wrapped together on the floor, the only sound the crackling of the fire and their laboured breathing. Esposito closed his eyes, let the silken feel of his wife's skin carry him away from the heartache he'd felt all week long. In this moment, there was no work, no murder, no stress. Just his bride.<p>

'Mere,' he murmured. 'I'm sorry for being such a jackass.'

'You don't need to apologize, Javi.'

'In my mind, I do. I'm not Victor Hammond and I never want to be like him. Guys like Victor Hammond don't apoligze when they've been careless to their wives.'

'Okay then.' Meredeth turned her head and pecked his lips. 'Apology accepted. You hungry, because I am famished and I could use something more than spa food.'

'Well then you are in luck, because I cooked.'

'You cooked?'

Esposito laughed at her slightly-stricken look. 'I'm not that bad anymore, Mere. And yes, I slaved and slaved over a hot take-out menu until I decided on you and I indulging ourselves in Petrelli's. I figured you'd like the prosciutto and provolone stuffed-crust?'

'Oh, you do love me,' Meredeth chuckled, and sat up, peeling herself away from him. 'I could do with a hot shower and some comfy clothes.'

'As could I.'

'And then more sex later.'

'Of course,' Esposito agreed. 'We are kid free until nine-am tomorrow.'

Feeling only marginally guilty, Meredeth looked around. 'Yeah, I meant to ask where they were but you dazzled me Javi, I got a little distracted.'

'The boys are with Duncan and Cam, and Tessi and Trini went to the Weaver house with Jojo and Mallory for a girls night.' Esposito sat up with her, gave her one more kiss. 'And that's not all.'

'Oh? More surprises.'

'Mm-hmm. The house is completely one-hundred percent ready for Tortuga's arrival tomorrow.'

'Seriously?' Esposito nodded. 'It's the least I could do for you after being such a child this week.'

'You weren't-'

'Trust me.'

'Okay.' Because she knew battling him on this point would simply lead to a headache after truly wonderful lovemaking, something she didn't want in the slightest, Meredeth gave him another kiss. 'I could use some comfy clothes and that pizza.'

'Clothes? Why not a robe?'

'Because it's more fun to peel off more clothes. Especially when there's music.'

Esposito saw the twinkle in her eye and grinned. 'You really are the best wife ever, Mere.'

* * *

><p>The following morning, refreshed from a night of nothing but sex and food with her husband, Meredeth awoke to an empty bed. She blindly patted the space beside her, felt it still warm. Lifting a leaden eyelid, she saw a note on her husband's pillow that read <em>Danish Angel<em>

'What are you up to, lover?' she murmured in an amused tone; flipping the sheet of paper over, she read Esposito's loopy handwriting.

_Morning my Danish sex goddess, there's one more surprise for you downstairs. xx, J._

The smile came easily to her face, and Meredeth rolled out of bed, found clothes; it was a good thing she did because when she reached the kitchen she stopped short - her children were all back, wide awake and seated at the kitchen table while Esposito manned the griddle full of mini-pancakes. The table itself appeared to be laden with nearly every breakfast treat imaginable, from home-fries and scrambled eggs to fresh fruit and sweet rolls from the Salamander. When her presence was registered by the under-ten crowd, they all gasped and called out to her.

'Morning, Mami!' Tessi smiled winningly. 'How was your special night with Daddy?'

'You ea' lossa shunk foo'?' Max asked. 'Lossa ships an' tah-reats?'

'We did have some treats,' Meredeth replied, going around the table to give them all kisses, 'but why are you all here so early?'

'Daddy got up early and picked us all up and we surprised you with breakfast!' Trini chirped, getting up to pull Meredeth's chair out for her, while Leo pointed out all the snacks on the table.

'Look, Mami, we have 'buela's buns and scrambled eggs, and toast and jam, and bacon, and-'

'Leo, Leo, easy buddy,' Esposito laughed. 'Mami hasn't had her morning booster yet.'

'Mami no duh-rink coffee, Daddy,' Max told him.

'Not that. This.'

Esposito set down his pancake spatula and pulled Meredeth close for a kiss, making the children all lose their minds which didn't deter him in the slightest. 'Considering three of the four of you have sweethearts,' he reminded his kids as he turned Meredeth in his arms so they could see the smile on her face, 'I would think you'd be past the kissing is gross phase.'

'Kissin' no 'ross, kissin' mean love,' Max filled in, and to prove his point, leaned over and kissed his sister's cheek. 'See? Love Tessi, I kiss her.'

'Thanks Max Power.'

'Wel-come Tessi.'

'Come on, Mami, you need munchies,' Leo declared; as he was sitting closest to his mother, he reached over and passed her the basket of rolls. 'You want some jam or butter or Brianna cheese?'

'What cheese?'

'There is a girl in my class at school, her whole name is Brianna but we call her Brie.'

'Oh,' Meredeth chuckled as she realized what he meant. 'Yes, I'd love some raspberry jam and Brie.'

'Okay.'

'Tah-rini, I have some juice, poh-fah-voh?'

'Here you go Max. Tessi, is your tummy okay, would you like some nice gentle eggs?'

'Sure, Trini.'

As the children set about filling their plates while Esposito brought over the pancakes from the griddle and set them down; his hand barely cleared the plate before Max and Leo were diving in. 'So, are we excited for today?'

'Yes, Daddy, but my tummy is staying settled, thank goodness,' Tessi replied, her insides a mess of butterflies. 'It's going to be so much fun having a puppy around again.'

'We no foh-git Ah-tie,' Max said simply, scooping up bites of home-fry with his spoon, 'he always you' 'pishal puppy, Tessi.'

'That's right, Max,' Trini agreed, 'and we'll always love him, but it's time to have another puppy around.'

'I agree.' Leo shoveled in fruit, washed it down with water. 'I miss him being at the bus-stop after school, that feeling will be nice again.'

'Well, let's keep eating, guys, because we don't want to be late getting Tortuga, do we?' Meredeth asked her babies.

'No Mami!'

Once breakfast was done, and dishes were tidied by everyone but Meredeth, and they were ready to head out, he took her hand sweetly in his. 'Come on, Mami, time to go and adopt our fifth baby.'

'I'm right there with you Daddy.'

Esposito laughed, kissed her. 'Five bucks says Tortuga wants to sleep in our bed tonight.'

'Ten says she'll wet Tessi's bed.'

'You're on. Tessi?' Meredeth called ahead the five feet where Tessi was holding Max's hand and had a bag of 'Tortuga toys' in the other. 'You have everything you need for Tortuga?'

'Yes Mami!'

'We coo', Mami!' Max added with a giggle, and Esposito and Meredeth shared his laugh when they heard their youngest boy ask his big sister if Tortuga would recognize them.

'Oh, man, Javi, are we crazy for getting another dog?'

'Hold that thought. Espo,' he said when he answered his ringing cellphone. 'Oh, hey Gil. No, sorry, not right now. Maybe later. Because I've got plans with Mere and the family.'


End file.
